Devdutt Pattanaik column | No hymns for the donkey
The HinduIn the past 30 years, the donkey population of India has dropped by 90%. The wild donkey of Rann As per Atharva Veda, gods such as Indra and Agni rode wagons pulled by donkeys, but the tempestuous horse always overshadows this humble hardworking beast. Curiously, the Tamil word for donkey, kaḻutai, has been etymologically deconstructed to mean ‘kicker of salt soil’ and, according to some scholars, indicates ancient memory of wild asses of the Rann of Kutch. In ancient times, a conquering king would plough his enemy’s field using donkeys and sow salt, rendering the land unfit for farming. In Karnataka, in the 12th century Amrutheshwara temple, in the panel describing the birth of Krishna, we find an image of Krishna’s father, Vasudeva, bowing to a donkey.
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