Vikram Seth's Sampati.

Some decades ago, Granta was considered a good literary magazine. It published the following poem by Vikram Seth titled 'Sampati'.  

A Petrarchan sonnet based on a character in the Ramayana

‘Why
do
you
cry?’
‘I
flew
too
high.
Un-
done,
all
see
me
fall.’

An explanation is given in a footnote

In the magic forest of the Ramayana, the early Indian epic, Sampati, ‘the king of the vultures’, tells the story of how he lost his wings, in a tale that resembles the Greek myth of Icarus.

Icarus cried very loudly when he fell out of the sky. His daddy, Daedalus, asked him why he was crying so loudly. Icarus replied, 'I'm fucking dead mate. That's what happens when you fall out of the fucking sky. I wasn't crying at all. Fuck the fuck off.'  

My brother and I were racing each other and we flew up to the sun. Higher and higher we flew, faster and faster in spirals. When the sun had reached the middle of the sky, Jatayu grew tired. I saw that he was almost fainting from the heat, so I spread my wings over him and shielded him. My wings were burned off and I fell here atop this mountain.

No one saw him fall and thus none could tell Jatayu where to find his brother.  

Since then I have been hoping to hear word of my brother. 

Shakuntala, abandoned as a baby in the forest, was sheltered from the Sun by the winged 'Shakun' bird. A nice German lady asked my Mum what sort of bird it was. 'Vulture' Daddy replied brutally. German lady was unhappy. I was pleased. Then I learned that, very sadly, some ancient Indian dude or dudess rescued the baby so the vulture was denied a tasty morsel. 

Anyway, the point to this story is that Shakuntala was the mother of Emperor Bharata from whom Lord Ram was descended. Thus there was a special relationship between vultures and the royal line. I may mention that Huma- the Iranian 'bird of fortune', the touch of whose shadow confers Empery- too is a vulture. Clearly this is an ancient Aryan belief. I suppose, the role of vultures in de-fleshing the cadaver for the purpose of 'sky burial', gave them ritual significance at some very early date.

 When Lord Ram's wife was abducted, Jatayu tried to rescue her and was killed by Ravana. Meanwhile. his elder brother, who was living in a cave, was hoping for news of him. Sampati was a tough old bird and hadn't howled or wailed or bawled like a baby because he fell from the sky. He felt sad but did not weep when he heard his beloved brother had died. Why? Jatayu had been slain in battle while upholding the dharma of the warrior- viz. the duty to help the weak. Thus, Jatayu had gained Heaven. Sampati himself had been given the boon that his wings would grow back when he helped those who were seeking Sita. He was intending to eat the monkeys who were engaged in that task. However, they had a message for him and he had a message for them and so the monkeys were neither eaten nor condemned to death by their King for failing in their task. This shows that food is a message (sandesh) but a message is also food- indeed, it may be the Gospel encapsulated in the Eucharist. 

In Sanskrit, the word 'sam' means 'with, together, completely, absolutely'  while 'pat' has the meaning descending or falling. Sampaati fell upon a mountain (but Indra had previously cut the wings off mountains) and we feel sympathy for those whose doom we dimly intuit as our own.

But what good is sympathy? The answer is, so the Buddhists say- it becomes effectual at the opportune moment- i.e. kshana-sampati. 

But that is every moment at which we recall, winged were the mountains ere our fall. There is a message here, which, to attain, is, like Hanuman, to alight, upon the only mountain to retain the power of flight. 

 At the very least, we can say, the moral of the story of Jatayu & Sampaati is that to give life or limb to protect others is to gain both more amply. Seth thinks otherwise. Still, it is good to know, he butchered Valmiki before he laid rough hands on Tulsidas. Give him time. He will shit on Veda itself. Tunbridge Wells must be so proud.