The Eternal Bond We Tend To Forget

I have grown up listening to the bollywood film music, first on the Radio receiver set and later on transistor, cassette player . I particularly took fancy to a beautiful song in the voice of inimitable, Lata Mangeshkar- “O pawan veg se udne waley ghodey ………………..” . The song fascinated me as much for the lyrics as the sweet tune it has been set to The other day I watched and listened to a clipping of the song on Youtube , and once again it simply mesmerized me. This song is from the movie “ Jai Chittor ” and is an invocation to Chetak, the immortalized horse of Maharana Pratap just before the great warrior was to take on the Mughal Emperor Akbar, in the famous battle of Haldighati. Nirupa Roy, who enacted the role of Maharana’s Queen, looks majestic and graceful.

I am equally reminded of Kanthak, again the famous horse of Prince Siddhaarth, who after renouncing the world, sought enlightenment, became Gautam Budhh. and founded Buddhism.

The great Rani of Jhansi is always shown riding a horse, but there is no clue in history or folklore as to its name.

Again, Iam a reminded of the movie “ Teri Meharbaniyan ” a token of human gratefulness for the ever faithful companion, dog and “ Hathi Mere Saathi ” celebrating the bond between man and elephant.

Needless to say that the deities in Hindu mythology have various animals as their vahans or mounts , which calls for a separate detailed discussion.

Man and animal have had this inseparable bond since the advent of civilization, but the most selfish animal of all has to be reminded of the animal rights and his duties towards the animal world through various World Wildlife bodies and back home our own SPCA and PETA .