The Bird Who Waited to Die

A Fight No One Expected

Ravana's Pushpaka cut through the forest sky with Sita inside. Below, an old eagle heard her cry. Jatayu, king of birds, rose — alone — against the Rakshasa king who had conquered the world.

Ravana's sword took both his wings. Jatayu fell to the earth near Kumbakonam, near a lotus tank. He did not die. For hours he lay in agony, holding his breath for one reason only: to tell Rama what he had seen.

The Son's Rites for a Bird

When Rama and Lakshmana came searching for Sita, they found him. Jatayu told them — Ravana, south, Lanka — and died.

Rama, who had been denied the chance to perform his own father Dasaratha's last rites, bent to perform Jatayu's. The shastra requires the wife at the side of the rite — Sita was not there. So Bhumadevi rose from the golden lotus of the Jatayu Pushkarani as Potramaraiyal (Hemambujavalli) and stood in her place. With her beside him, Rama gave Jatayu the rites a son gives a father — and the bird, called thereafter Periya Udayar, attained moksha.

Exhausted and strangely at peace — for he had finally done for another what he could not do for his father — Rama lay down right there. That is why at Thiruppullambudhangudi, unusually, Rama reclines. He is Valvil Ramar, four-handed, bearing shanka and chakra even as a man, under the Shobhana Vimana. Tirumangai Alvar once mistook the reclining pair for mere pilgrims under a tree and walked past; turning back, he saw them blaze as Chaturbhuja.

The Name

Pullam — bird; Bhoothangudi — where the body was left. The bird left his body here, and a man who had lost everything stopped to bury a bird as if he were family.

Who waited for you to come, when you thought no one was waiting?