Amazing Facts about Animals in our Epic and Myths!!!

There are a few myths in which there are facts mentioned about animals which not only seems to be interesting but also will get us startled for the knowledge Indians had, even before scientists made use of technology to find things out which they recently, a few years before did, and the same was found thousands of years before.

~ It is believed that Bat (an animal) were being cursed by kali that they would consume food and would excrete (both Urine and litter) from mouth, the myth is something like this:

Servachur Madurai Kali, an ansh of Mahakali of Madurai, took birth as Kannaki; a princess in an inauspicious time so as to avenge the king for having killed both of her devotees, please refer the story of Kannaki and Kovalan, where in her husband would be slew his head off his body without being investigated properly, for which she would burn the entire Madurai and start walking in enragement towards Trichy. Where on the way a few imbecile men start, to molest her for which she curses them to become bats and consume food and would excrete (both Urine and litter) from mouth. The thing which gets us startled is that we had a wide range of science including the study of animals (zoology) too.

~ Similarly another myth about frogs as to why can’t they taste.

Bhrigu Maharshi was an extremely talented person. Puloma was his pregnant wife. One day Bhrigu asked her to take care of Agnihotras while he went to the river to take a dip. In the meantime a Demon named Pulomudu came there and saw her. He was mesmerized by her divine beauty and he was filled with lust and craved to possess her. He then was thinking " Is this is divine beauty Puloma whom I wanted to marry?. Who should I ask now? Oh, let me ask Agnihotra".

Agnihotra was in a very difficult situation to answer the question of Pulomudu. He thought "If he tells the truth them Pulomudu will abduct her and take away and Bhrigu will curse for telling the truth and causing harm to his wife. If I tell a lie then I will have AsatyaDosha( A sin caused because of telling lies). What should I do now? I better take the consequences of a curse rather than lying". And he told Pulomudu that she was the wife of Bhrigu, Puloma.

Pulomudu said " I always knew she was Puloma. She was supposed to be my wife, Bhrigu never even thought about this and he married her." He took the form of a Pig and abducted her. Puloma started screaming for help, and she cried bitterly. Her tears formed a river on the way, thus forming the river Vadhusaradhi. The evil deeds of Pulomudu caused anger to the fetus inside Puloma. The fetus came out with extreme anger; he was called as Chyavana, a very powerful child. He came out with thousand times the brightness of the Sun. He was raging like a wild fierce fire. Chyavana fell on Pulomudu and he turned in to ashes. Puloma took her baby boy and returned home.

Bhrigu completed his bath and returned to the Ashram, he saw the river Vadhusara and was astonished. When he entered the house he saw his wife with a baby. She told him what happened. Bhrigu Maharshi became extremely furious asked her how Pulomudu could recognize her. Puloma said “As soon as he saw me he became lunatic, he went and asked Agni and got the information. He then broke in to the house like a Pig." Bhrigu became extremely furious and cursed Agni " You are such an evil doer. You shall be Sarva Bhakshakudu (eat anything and everything)."


Agni said “How can you do this to me, All I was doing was telling the truth. Is it a wrongful deed to tell the truth? A person who does not tell the truth or tries to hide Truth shall go to Naraka. I was afraid of AsatyaDosha and told the truth. I am the KarmaSakshi(witness of all action) for the whole world, How can I lie? You cursed me for uttering the truth. You are relieved as you are a Rishi, but I am a servant of the world and by cursing me you have harmed the world. All the offerings given to Gods and Forefathers are given to me, they receive them solely because of me.If I become Sarva Bhakshakudu, then I will become impure. And because of my impurity the day to day activities in the world will be stopped. If you wish to do this, then carry on". He then took his real form and the world became devoid of fire.

All the lamps went off at once, there was no fire anywhere. All the Yagnas were stopped, everything that needed fire was stopped abruptly including cooking. The Gods have not received offerings and they were hungry too. Everyone rushed to LordBrahma. He then realized that Bhrigu Maharshi's curse is responsible for all this commotion. He then called Agni and said “All the world has halted, please come back. You are very important for survival of all the beings. You are the source of food for Gods, and saviour of the World. If you are angry then it is very difficult for everyone. Bhrigu Maharshi cursed you to become Sarva Bhakshaka, his words wont go waste. You will remain pure, nothing can scathe your purity. You are the purest form of anything. Please come back and get the world going." He also prayed and requested Agni to come back. Agni calmed down and took his normal form, the world got back to life.

Of the fear of being cursed by Bhrigu, Agni hid himself in water and there was no Agni anywhere, all the devathas started searching for him. The frogs who lived I water could not bear his heat, and told the devathas where he was hiding out of enragement he cursed the frogs to be deprived of their taste buds on their tongue and could never taste looking at their plight the devathas then said that they could reach any desired place at nights for how much ever dark it was, later hid himself in a tree and when the elephants informed the devathas they again were cursed by him that their tongue would be turned inwards the devathas then said that they even then could eat and make incoherent sounds. Similarly the parrots were cursed for their deprive of speech and then was given a boon that after lot of practice they could speak and their voice would sound very sweet and so on… we at times might wonder that there were observations done pertaining animals in those days.