Stork bowl from Kurdistan

A ceramic bowl, covered with flying birds, found in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Currently in the local Duhok museum. The Pic is from this Facebook post. I don't know who the photographer is...

Now I don't know exactly when the bowl was made. But it is displayed in this display cabinet...

Together with this statuette, which was dated to 4000 BC, so I assume the bowl is from the same period. Stylistically it fits...

I am of course interested in the birds depicted on this vessel. 

After a lot of checking through the lists of birds of Iraq, and a lot of comparing of depicted birds with real birds, I believe that the depicted birds are white storks...

Depicted during their spring migration back to their nesting grounds in North Eastern Iraq...

Storks usually arrive back to their nesting grounds in Mar/Apr and begin their nesting season in Apr/May and the first eggs hatch in May...

Nesting storks are a spectacle, and a very hard thing to miss, so it is possible that storks here are animal calendar markers for Apr/May...A very important part of the year in Mesopotamia...

Apr/May, is the time when the grain harvest  begins in Mesopotamia...

Apr/May is also the time when Tigris, which flows through the area where this stork bowl was found, reaches its peak annual water levels...and floods...

That the depicted birds could in some way be linked to grain agriculture, can be deduced from the fact that they are depicted flying over checkered rectangular surfaces, usually interpreted as fields...

But, who knows...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Peacock and cobra

Chaturbhuj Nala's rock art in Bhanpura, Madhya Pradesh. 

What we see is two peacocks attacking a snake. Peacocks are known to hunt and eat snakes and were kept in palaces for exactly that reason...I think that the dots depicted next to the snake are drops of snake's blood. But does this image have another, non obvious meaning. I think so. And I think that animal calendar markers can help us understand it...

Animal calendar markers are made by people who observed that certain annual animal behaviour, like mating, birthing, migrating, coincides with some climatic event like summer monsoon season...

In India, climatic year is divided into two halves, the wet half of the year, summer monsoon (Apr - Sep) and dry half of the year, winter monsoon (Oct - Mar)...

I talked about deification of the monsoon winds in India in my post "Surya's wives" in which I explained what this commonly depicted scene means. 

This very happy looking dude, with two gorgeous babes sitting on his laps, is no other than the Vedic Sun God Surya. He is positively "beaming" with pride...And I guess pretty glad to have few extra hands...But what is really the narrative here? Well sun and monsoon, dry and wet, of course...

And in my post "Vayu", about the "God of wind" whose name literally means air/wind. But not just any wind. Summer monsoon wind...

The peak monsoon rain season in India is Jun-Sep...

Interestingly, this is also the peak mating season of the peafowls. During this time peacocks engage in mad displays and fights and their mating call even sounds like Hindu for "Come rain!!!"...

Not something local people would easily miss...

Which is why peacock became deified animal calendar marker for summer monsoon rain season. I talked about this in my post "Come rain"...

Inevitable deification of peacock animal calendar marker, process we see everywhere with all animal calendar markers, produced in India these kind of legends: Peacocks originally had dull tail feathers...

But once Indra, the god of monsoon rain, battled the demon Ravana. Indra was losing the fight, and was running away from Ravana when he came across a peacock who spread its tail and hid Indra behind it...

In return from being saved by the peacock, Indra gave a boon to the peacock saying that just as he, Lord Indra is  Sahasraksha, or thousand-eyed, the peacock too shall get a plumage of a thousand iridescent eyes...

Oh, and since then Indra loves peacock so much, that it is believed that when Indra transforms himself into an animal, he becomes a peacock...

Indra is usually depicted riding on a cloud elephant (another deified animal calendar marker)...

Why? Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...

This is another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, cause this link between rain gods and elephants makes no sense anywhere else...

I talk about elephant calendar marker in India in my posts "Musth", "Samantabhadra", "Modesty", "Ganesha"...

But Indra's main general, Kartikeya, rides on a peacock...I will talk about Kartikeya in a separate post soon...

Also, because this overlap between peafowl mating season and the monsoons season, Makara, the mount of the old monsoon god Varuna, but really a complex animal calendar marker for the monsoon season, sometimes has peacock tail...Talked about it in my posts "Makara", "Yakshi", "Maruts"...

But what about the snake?

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

I talked about this in many of my posts listed here: 

I so far didn't write about snake animal calendar marker in Indian mythology, something which is way overdue. Will try to do this soo...I promise...

But what snake is depicted between the two peacocks on the Chaturghuj Nala's rocks? If I was a betting man, I would bet it is the Indian Cobra (Naja naja). 

Why? Because it has a mating season in India between April and July...During rain monsoon...

During this period, the female Indian Cobra lays eggs in holes in the ground and then guards them. The incubation period lasts for approximately 48 to 69 days, after which eggs hatch into young snakes that are independent from birth and capable of hunting and delivering venom...

Again, all the things not easily missed by the local population...

So, during the monsoon season, both peacock and cobra have their mating seasons and are because of that both animal calendar markers for the monsoon season...

In the Arthashastra, an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, politics, economic policy and military strategy, when the author wants to talk about two natural enemies forgetting their ancient hostility in the face of a common calamity, he says:

The peacock and the cobra are natural enemies. But during the heat of the summer, the cobra lives in the shade of the peacock’s wing...

I believe that this is both political and calendaric allegory...

And so back to the original depictions of peacocks attacking a cobra from the Chaturghuj Nala's rock art. What I think is depicted here is triumph of summer monsoon (peacock) over sun (snake), where the drops of snake's blood represent rain...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Come rain

Male peafowls defend their territory from rival males during the mating season. 

Peafowl mating season peaks between Jun and Aug, the monsoon season. Hence peacock as an animal calendar marker for the monsoon season...

It is during the mating season that peacocks (male peafowl) dance (parade around with their tails spread) showing off in front of the females...

Peacock pics are from the article "All About The Indian Peafowl".

Which is why in Ritusamhara we read that:

"For this bird, the rainy season serves as a period of jubilant activity, when it extends its tail (feathers) and indulges in the dance. The rains serve as an inducement to this bird for indulging in its exalted dance..."

"The beauty of mountains streaked everywhere with waterfalls, while their high rocks were kissed by the stooping clouds, and their sides presented a gorgeous chaos of peacocks."

oldeuropeanculture

The author of the Mayoora Doota exclaims:

"When the showers rain, you dance with delight. Even the gods take pleasure in observing your dance without twinkling their eyelids..."

Even the peacock mating call sounds like Hindu for "Come rain!!!"...

Because this overlap between peafowl mating season and the monsoons season, Makara, the mount of the old monsoon god Varuna, but really a complex animal calendar marker for the monsoon season, sometimes has peacock tail...Talked about it in my post "Makara"...

Peacocks as animal calendar marker are also present in Iran. A Sassanian dish, 400-600AD, Iran, Currently in Al Thani collection...I talk about it in my post "Rainbows and peacocks" about rain, rainbows and peacocks and the goddess Anahita, Zoroastrian goddess of water and fertility...

Peafowl mating season is Mar-Sep with peak Jun-Aug...Look at the snowmelt diagram for Iranian rivers...Hence the link between Anahita and peacocks...

Just like in India the monsoon rain and floods bring rebirth of nature, in Iran spring rain and floods bring rebirth of nature.

Both are linked to mating (dancing and fighting) peacocks...

Ever wondered why two peacocks drinking water surrounded with greenery are Christian symbol of resurrection, rebirth? 🙂

PS: Peacock, symbol of the resurrection of Christ makes a lot more sense if...

If Christ is life, living nature, then his immaculate conception and virgin birth become easy to understand...From my post "Living nature" about the nature of Christ...

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Vayu

Meet Vayu, Hindu god of wind whose name literally means air/wind. But not just any wind. Summer monsoon wind. In this thread I will show how everything from Indian Vayu mythology identifies him as such, including animal calendar markers...

He is here depicted sitting on his most common Vahana (animal vehicle), a Blackbuck (Indian antelope with wavy/spirally horns)...

As I said before, all the Vahanas of Indian deities are animal calendar markers for the time of the year the deity is associated with. And these animal calendar markers are based on mating, birthing, migrating, hibernating...season of the animal in question...

Varuna, the old Monsoon god, rides on a crocodile/Makara...In India, crocodiles hatch during the monsoon season...I talked about this in my posts "Makara", "Yakshi", "Proto Durga", "Maruts"...

Yama, the god of death rides on a buffalo. In India, buffalo mating marks the arrival of the dry, drought season. I talked about this in my post "The bitch of the gods"...

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati

Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati, produces (the tree of) life and the river Ganges. 

A calendar marker for the peak of the monsoon season, Jul/Aug, where bull=summer=May/Jun/Jul  meets  lion=autumn=Aug/Sep/Oct 

I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

So what about Vayu and Blackbuck? Vayu, is the deified wet summer monsoon wind, which blows from Apr to Sep. Blackbuck has two mating peaks, Mar-Apr (Vayu arrives riding on Blackbuck) and Aug-Oct (Vayu departs riding on Blackbuck)...

BTW, there is also a dry winter monsoon. 

I talked about another symbolic depictions both of these monsoon winds in my post "Surya's wives", in which I analysed the symbolism of this commonly depicted scene:

This very happy looking dude, with two gorgeous babes sitting on his laps, is no other than the Vedic Sun God Surya. 

He is positively "beaming" with pride...And I guess pretty glad to have few extra hands...But what is really the narrative here?  

Vayu is sometimes said to ride "noisily" in a chariot pulled by white horses. Horse mating season (Apr/May-Sep/Oct) marks the summer monsoon season in India...I talked about solar horse in India in my post "Hayagriva" in which I analysed symbolism of this weird little story, and all the other horse legends containing solar horse animal calendar marker in Indian mythology:

Once Lord Vishnu’s head was cut off accidentally by other gods. The head turned out to be the Sun. The gods then attached a horse head to Vishnu's body, which is how he assumed his Hayagriva form. 

Interestingly, the main Christian "replacement" for Rain god Perun in Serbia, St Elijah the Thunderer, drives on top of the clouds in his chariots, causing thunder and lightning when the chariot wheels bump off the surface of the clouds...

I talked about this in my post "Thundering sun god"...

Vayu is also sometimes said to ride on a deer. I bet it's this deer

In the Vedic mythology, Maruts, are a group of storm/rain deities which always accompany Indra...Now in Rig Veda 7.40.3. we read "Maruts, whose steeds are the spotted deer..."

Why? Cause mating season of Indian spotted deer, which is characterised by vicious stag fights and loud bellowing, peaks right at the start of the monsoon season. 

So the locals could say "mating of spotted deer is followed by monsoon rain". Or they could say "spotted deer brings rain"...Or they could say "Indra and Maruts arrive on chariots pulled by spotted deer"...More poetic...

BTW this is another proof that Rig Vedas had to have been written in India proper, cause this link between rain gods and spotted deer makes no sense anywhere else...

From my post "Maruts"...

In the Vedic scriptures, Vayu is closely associated with Indra...

Indra, the thunder and rain god, rides on a white (cloud) elephant named Airavata...

Why? Indian elephants mate during Indian monsoon season...I talked about it in my post "Musth"...

Elephant that creates "The river in the sky"

Varāhapurāṇa chapter 82: A "river of the sky" starts at the "ocean of the sky" and, being agitated by the elephant of Indra, falls at the top of mount Meru, where at the bottom it forms four great rivers...Basically a description of summer monsoon...I talked about this in my post "Elephants and the river in the sky"... 

Vayu (wind) together with Agni (heat) is said to be a father of Maruts, a group of storm/rain deities which always accompany Indra...Kind of obvious when you think about it, right? 

7th c. Maruts relief, Sambor Prei Kuk, Kampong Thom Province, Cambodia.

I talked about this in my post "Maruts"...

The Upanishads praise Vayu as Prana or "life breath of the world"...For India, monsoon is literally life breath: summer wet, life giving monsoon which blows from the sea into India is inhale, and winter dry, life taking monsoon which blows out of India to the sea is exhale...

I think this is why the Chandogya Upanishad says that one cannot know Brahman except by knowing Vayu as the udgitha (the mantric syllable om)...

You also might find this interesting

AOUM...

Drawing the focus inward...

A - outside

O - surface  

U - inside  

M - me...mmmmmmmm vibrates the inner cavity...

From my post "All of vedas"...

In the later Hindu scriptures, he is described as a dikpala (one of the guardians of the direction), who looks over the north-west direction...Look at the direction of the summer monsoon winds...

I talked about this in my post "Ganesha", in which I analyse strange stories about this god, like this one: Why was Ganesha's new head taken from "an elephant whose head pointed north"? Cause It is the summer monsoon winds, which blow northward, that bring the rains into India...And elephants, vehicles of Indra, the rain god, mate during monsoon season...

The Hindu epics describe him as the father of the god Hanuman...Hanuman, the divine monkey "who was stealing offerings dedicated to Indra, the God of Rain"?

Sacred Hanuman langur monkey... whose peak mating season is Jul-Oct, peak monsoon season...

I'll write a separate thread about Hanuman...

Vayu is said to have another child, Demigod Hero Bhima. I will talk about Bhima, his brothers Pandavas, his Mother Kunti in another thread...

For now I will just say this: Bhima was incredibly strong,  a mighty smiter armed with a club/mace and a might archer armed with a bow and arrows, whose standard was lion...Sounds familiar?

Relief featuring the symbols of Herakles, the bow and the lion skin. 1st c. BC, Aedepsus, Euboea. New Archaeological Museum of Chalkis Arethousa, Greece.

The true identity of the Heracles the Archer was discussed in my posts "Cetus" and "Mithras"...

BTW, Lion is an animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, peak monsoon season in India...When rain defeats drought...

Why is Durga, goddess created by Devas, to avenge their defeat by evil Asura Mahisha (meaning Buffalo) riding on a lion. It all has to do with Indian climate. I talk about this in my post "Mahishasuramardini"...

Leo, Jul/Aug is also the peak Rudra season...When stone clubs and arrows fall from the sky together with rain...I talked about it my post "Rudra", in which I tried to explain why Maruts (followers of Rudra) came (to earth) along with Agni (fire) from above...And quite a few other strange things about this "god"...

In Rigveda, Mandala 1,Hymn 2, Vayu is the first god to receive soma in a ritual, and then he shares it with Indra...

I will here just say that I believe that soma is actually monsoon rain water. I will elaborate on it in a separate thread...

For now I would just say that I believe that the extraction of soma is evaporation of the drinkable, sweet rain water from the undrinkable salty sea water...

Vayu, god of monsoon wind being the first to receive extracted soma and then giving it to Indra, god of rain, then makes a lot of sense...

Sooo...I will stop here. In one of my next posts I will talk about how Vayu left India and how he arrived to Iran...And what happened to him there...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

BTW, animal calendar markers were first used in India during Indus Valley Civilisation in the same way to depict the same things...Talking about cultural continuity...

Example 1:

Is this depiction not of a male warrior but of a female warrior, a Warrior Goddess actually, a Proto Durga, the killer of the buffalo Asura who scared the Devas shitless? From the post "Proto Durga", with the analysis of this 3rd mill BC Harappan tablet...

Example 2:   

Why is the central hut of this flat bottomed river boat depicted oo this 2500–1750 BC Mohenjo-Daro tablet flanked by two date palm trees? The analysis of  which depicts a  with a ...From my post "Mohenjo Daro boat tablet"...

Example 3: 

Is bull man from this Mohenjo-Daro tablet actually Proto-Shiva? From my post "Human bull hybrid"...

Example 4:

Depiction of the Kharif (wet) season (May to November)  and the Rabi (dry) season (November to May) through animal and plant calendar markers on an Indus Valley civilisation vase…From my post "Kharif and Rabi seasons"...

Example 5: 

A 2334-2154 BC cylinder seal depicting Indian elephants, rhinos and crocodiles, all animal calendar markers for monsoon season. Made somewhere in Indus Valley Civilisation and found in an Akkad in Mesopotamia...I talk about it in my post "White rhino"...