Of Monkeys and Cultural Bridges
Culture 101: The Animals of India!
Check out the first post in this series of Cultural Bridges for context.
In college, people would sometimes ask me a strange question: "Do they eat monkey brains in India?" I was confused.
Turns out, it all stemmed from an '80s movie called Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. So, one weekend, I decided to watch it on video. My reaction? Disbelief at the climactic scenes. I am not surprised that it scared many people about what happens in India!
For the record, I don't know of any Indian cuisine that includes monkey brains.
To understand the importance of monkeys in India, you have to dive into the world of mythology. Because, nearly everything in India can be traced to mythology.
Hindu Mythology: The Basics
In Hindu mythology, many animals are linked to gods or perform divine acts. Gods and humans can turn into trees, animals, stones because of a curse. They can be released from it by powerful sages, or Divine acts.
The main storyline.
Note: I have condensed a 1700 page, 24,000 verse epic into a simple 5 minute story.
The story we're about to explore involves the Preserver-God, a central deity who comes to Earth to fight evil. Whenever the Preserver-God arrives, he's accompanied by other gods, devoted beings, and sentient animals.
Animal sentience is being evaluated by modern science and shown in many cases to be real, as this RSCPA article writes.
In this story, the Preserver-God incarnates as a human Prince but is banished to the forest for 14 years by his father at the behest of his step-mom. In support, his Princess-wife and one of his three half-brothers also accept the exile.
The Exile
During the Prince’s exile, an evil-King tricks the two brothers, and kidnaps the Prince’s beautiful wife, leaving him disconsolate. The brothers set out in search of her, and discover a band of humanoid monkeys and their King. The monkey-King has lost his kingdom due to monkey politics.
[Did this ancient tale serve perhaps as inspiration for Planet of the Apes?]
The Deal
The Prince strikes a deal. In return for helping the monkey-King win his kingdom back, he asks for the support of the monkey-army to rescue his Princess-wife.
They shake hands. The Prince helps the monkey-King defeat his brother.
Now, one of the best of the humanoid monkeys (let’s call him H) becomes devoted to the Prince.
H’s Backstory
[Read the importance of backstories in this culture bridge post.]
H is born of the Wind-God and a human mother who was cursed to be a monkey and freed from the curse by H’s birth.
As a child, H woke up one morning, hungry without his mom around to feed him. He thinks the Sun is a fruit, and flies towards it like Superman.
[It could well be he liked it for a toy, we will never know!]
Angered at his impudence, and somewhat afraid that H may consume the life-giving force, the mighty Sun-God calls on his friend, the King of Gods. The King of Gods stops H with his thunderbolt, disfiguring his face in the process. H’s father, the Wind-God gets mad and hides away with his kid in a cave, depriving Earth of air.
Worried, the King of Gods and the mighty Sun-God reconcile with the Wind-God and bless H with even more powers.
But kid H continues to prank others, angering a powerful sage who curses him to lose his powers. The parents intervene again, and the sage relents, modifying the curse to lessen its effect: H will remember his own strength only when someone else reminds him of it.
[Nod to modern-day motivational coaching and self-awareness!]
H already has superhuman strength from birth.
[It’s like when Superman suddenly realizes that in addition to his heat vision and steel fists, he can fly over the fields of Kansas! Except someone has to tell him he can fly! Get it?]
Why do we care ?
Well, it is critical to our story of the Prince.
H’s Flight
When H is out searching for the Princess-wife with the other monkeys, they reach the end of the land and face a big blue body of water (the Indian Ocean)
A bird (literally) has told them that the evil-King has taken the Princess to an island across the ocean (present-day Sri Lanka).
Did you know that the two countries were connected through a shared mythological history?
Scared, the monkeys don’t know how to get across. Even H feels defeated.
[Yep, no boats!]
Then, a monkey-friend of H remembers the curse and its remedy. The monkeys began praising H and reminding him of his powers. Emboldened by the praise, H becomes the Hulk minus the gamma rays.
[Inspired, Hollywood?]
A gigantic H flies across the vast ocean and reaches the island of the evil-King.
He meets the Princess, and then allows himself to be captured by the evil-King by turning into a human-size monkey.
As the Prince’s emissary, H conveys the Prince’s message that the evil-King should release the Princess-wife or face the Prince’s wrath in war.
[In many stories, attempts were made to resolve the conflict prior to a war. Emissaries were sent to negotiate and achieve peace if possible! As in Greek mythology, the emissaries had protected status.]
The evil-King laughs and refuses. Driven by his ego and knowledge of his invincibility (granted by another God), he orders H’s tail to be set on fire.
Irate, H turns into Hulk again and sets fire to the island with his burning tail forgetting that the Princess-wife is still captive on the island.
[Hulk, anyone?]
When he realizes this, H quickly reigns himself in, and reassuring the Princess-wife of a quick release, he flies back to the Prince.
Now that the Prince knows the whereabouts of his wife and has gathered opposition research on the evil-King, he is able to formulate a successful strategy to rescue her.
Overcoming numerous obstacles, the Prince finally kills the evil-King after a fierce ten-day war.
H Saves a Life.
At some point during the war, the evil-King’s son manages to severely wound the Prince’s brother and knock him unconscious. H is dispatched by their medicine-sage to find a rare herb in the Himalayas. H flies there but gets confused as to which herb he has to collect. Time-bound, he uproots the whole mountain and takes it back.
This act saves the Prince’s brother and eventually wins them the war. So, H plays a pivotal role in the decisive battle between good and evil.
Note: India has a long and ancient history of using natural methods to resolve many an ailment which continues to today, albeit with less skilled practitioners.
Victory
The Prince and Princess are reunited and return home to much fanfare to be crowned King and Queen. The new King blesses H to be revered henceforth as his eternal devotee and rewards him with the gift of immortality.
The Prince, and by extension God, defeated the evil-King with the help of H.
Thus, H, the humanoid monkey is transformed into H, the monkey-God.
If you want to read the entire epic, I’d recommend the English retelling by William Buck or you can read the English translation of the original.
This is how monkeys came to be revered in India.
H is a key God in the Hindu lexicon and is immensely popular. Temples dedicated to him can be found throughout the country. He is worshipped as a celibate God, particularly on Tuesdays, a day when many Hindus also choose to abstain from meat and alcohol.
It’s also common to spot cars and taxis with the silhouette of the monkey-God etched onto their back glass, symbolizing H’s pervasive cultural influence.
According to a prevalent myth, wherever temples dedicated to H are found, monkeys are likely to be nearby, reinforcing the story of the Prince, and the deep-rooted connection between the deity and these playful creatures.
Modern times
Monkeys of course can be found aplenty near highways, villages, ancient temples, and hills. Perhaps attracted by the possibility of eating coconuts or being fed bananas, they show up at temples gracefully swinging from nearby trees, watching and waiting for that precise moment they spot food in your hands.
In the past, some street performers used to keep monkeys as pets, dress and train them to dance and perform tricks (cruel, no doubt!). You may still spot a few of them in Delhi. I am not sure if RSPCA has views on this, but you can learn more about the dying art of the street performers here.
Some summers, we have had an entire clan of monkeys replete with babies and grandmas, visit our home in Hyderabad. They traverse the large Neem trees from behind our house to the mango trees in our backyard, navigate the edges and sit calmly, on the roof. They eat the mangoes if ripe, or wait and watch if there is any food to be had down below. The adult monkeys are often large and if they descend to the ground, it is best to keep a bamboo stick handy to shoo them away. Or prepare to have your house ransacked.
But the fiercest and the largest-sized monkeys I ever saw were on a summer trip to India when visiting another old temple near Simla.
In order to discover Indian history, a temple visit is a must as I share in this post.
As for the Simla monkeys, they were aggressive and jumped at many in the group, trying in vain to get at the shirt pockets of one of the men. His glasses may have been the shiny object they wanted. The local caretaker shooed them away with a stout stick, but not before they ran away with the bananas we had in hand.
Wildlife Tip: When confronted by monkeys, do not put your hands in bags, purses, and shirt pockets as they assume you are about to feed them. Curiosity not only kills the cat, but in India, they can make monkeys jumpy and attack you. Do not stare at them.
Most though are harmless, and can be a photographer’s dream, with their tiny ones in tow. Here are more tips in case you are curious.
Conclusion
Some scholars suggest that the introduction of H happened much later than the story of the Prince. Others disagree. The truth is somewhere in between as several versions will attest.
As with most stories of faith in India, it is the belief that drives the behavior, not the technicality of the research.
Fundamentally, Hindu mythology reinforces morality and ethics by dovetailing principles neatly into these stories: Valor, duty, principles, loyalty, familial love, and arraying the forces of good against evil. From ancient times, these have been reinforced through word of mouth storytelling with the various rulers of the day etching them in stone onto various temple walls.
Do you like monkeys ? Then, India is a welcome place to see them, and be amazed. They are easy to find, though not as much in the city. Just an hour or two’s drive from any large city you can visit ancient temples with beautiful 12th century ponds, and say hello to its monkey residents. Or visit the ancient city of Varanasi and be dazzled by their antics.
Be sure to read the other posts in this series of Cultural Bridges!
Have monkey stories to share? Leave a comment.
Thanks for the link, Jayshree. No stone, like you said, in H's birth, but the lightning is interesting. The use of lightning by the King of Gods harkens back to the origins of farming and the farmer's Weather/Storm gods. Wasn't Indra's weapon-thingy capable of shouting such bolts? Is Indra the King of Gods above? Have I skimmed too swiftly? 8^)
I enjoyed this read Jayshree! Thank you for sharing.