The rooster and the sun
We all know that roosters crow before
sunrise. But do you know why they start their chatter before all of us? According
to scientists, roosters have a mean circadian rhythm clock of 23.5 hours and
thus start crowing just before sunrise. While the age- old popular belief
is that roosters crow to signal the start of a new day and wake people
up, some believe that they do so to communicate with other roosters . Over time,
the crowing of roosters got woven into the folklore of various countries and
communities.
A typically interesting story is from
odisha, which is traditionally rich in folklore. A lot of stories owe their
origin to the state’s large tribal population, their culture, music, dance and
beliefs. One such belief among the Munda tribe was that there were seven suns
in the universe. When they all rose and shone brightly, the resultant heat was
unbearable. The Mundas were a hunting
tribe, seven brothers from one Munda
family got together and decided to destroy the seven suns. They
succeeded in killing all but one managed to escape by hiding behind a hill. One
of the rabbits in the forest noticed this.
After the disappearance of the suns, there
was darkness everywhere. All the animals in the forest were confused. They
could not see each other, the rabbits started walking into the lions and the
elephants started bumping into trees. To come out of this chaos, the animals
decided to have a meeting.
It was in this meeting that the rabbit
who saw the sun hide behind the hill told everyone that one sun continued to
live. He went on to suggest that they should request him to come back. All the
animals liked the idea. However, they had a problem- who would be the best
candidate to request the sun to come back out.
The king of the animals took the lead.
His attempt was unsuccessful. The elephant tried next, but he too was
unsuccessful. One by one, all the other animals tried, but to no avail. Even
the beautiful peacock danced and asked the sun to come out. But he did not
oblige. The animals were now in a state of panic. Despite all of them trying
their best, the sun did not appear. Finally the rooster came forward. All the
animals laughed at him. The head of the animals decided that he too should be
given a chance. The rooster is allowed
to try, he announced. The rooster gently crowed, kookoodokoo. To everyone’s
surprise, the sun peeped out. The rooster crowed again. This time the sun came out,
shining brightly. There was light everywhere. All the animals as well as the
humans felt relieved. The mood changed all around. All the Mundas who wanted to
kill the sun started to respect him and wanted him around . Since that day, the
Mundas believe that the sun rises with
the crowing of the rooster.
Similar stories can be found in other
countries and cultures too, but each has a different take on the relationship
between the rooster and the sun. In our villages, even today, farmers wake up to
the crowing of roosters along with the rising sun.
