Any thoughts about a hare/rabbit bring to my mind a handful of fables and a few works of art of ancient India, and even world over. Mohenjo-daro of the Indus civilisation (before 1900 BCE), for instance, had yielded a life-like terracotta figurine and two copper plaque engravings, which show a rabbit each. Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) of Germany had produced, in 1502, a watercolour study of a ‘Young Hare’, which appears more realistic than any similar kind of work that might have been produced in ‘Photorealism’ of recent origin.
With regard to fables associated with the hare, one often hears about a marathon between the slow-moving tortoise and the fast-paced rabbit in which the latter loses the race, mainly because of its foolishness. I thought that this was an Indian story, until I read that it was written by Aesop (c. 564 BCE), the Greek fabulist. In many Indian tales, however, the rabbit figures as an intelligent animal. In a story from Panchatantra (c.300-200 BCE) and Hitopadesa (800-950 CE), a rabbit makes a ferocious but numbskull lion fall into a well and die as it was eating all other animals in the forest indiscreetly. In another story from the former text, one among the rabbits living on the banks of the Moon Lake fools a king-elephant by stating that their king-rabbit lives in the moon, and shows the planet’s reflection in the waters, and thus averts the elephants from coming to the lake. In Sasa Jataka (No. 316), a hare offers itself as food to Sakka (Indra of Buddhism), who in turn draws a figure of the hare on the moon. I remember reading such fables in a children’s magazine, Chandamama, which had a logo of a rabbit in the full moon. Though the logo is of recent origin, the idea of a rabbit in the moon dates prior to the times of Panchatantra and other stories.
The moon craters that appear to the naked eye have been visualised as various animals, most notably a rabbit. According to scholars, sasa (rabbit in Sanskrit) was mentioned once in the Rig Veda as a “swallower of a razor”; and, in the Atharva Veda, a few unspecified animals were described as Sasayu in the sense that they lurk to catch hares as prey. The Satapata Brahmana (XI. I. 5. 3), a commentary on the Sukla Yajur Veda, and Jaiminiya Brahmana (I. 2. 8) of the Sama Veda mention the presence of the hare in the moon. The Aaranyaparva of the Mahabharata also mentions the hare as a breakfast item, a lake named Sesa Tirtha, and also the rabbit-bearing moon (III. 226. 2). Further, Sanskrit names like Sasadhara and Sachin mean ‘marked by hare’ i.e., the moon.
In ancient Indian coins, inscriptions and the emblems of various dynasties, the sun and moon were shown together to indicate eternity, which coincides with the idiom, ‘As long as the sun and the moon endure’. The full moon with a rabbit in it and a single or a pair of serpents, which represent Rahu, the shadow-planet, had also been shown on the ceiling of the Raja-gopura of many medieval Hindu Temples. Rahu, according to Hindu mythologies, causes the lunar eclipse in which he swallows the moon first and then unswallows it. Sri Bala Krishna temple, which was constructed by Krishna Deva Raya (r.1509-1529) in 1515, near Hampi, contains a well-preserved carving of the rabbit-bearing full moon, which is flanked by a pair of serpents. Interestingly, the rabbit is shown running away while looking backwards at the serpent with its split tongue so clearly discernable. This clearly suggests that the rabbit had become scared of the impending danger of the eclipse, and hence is trying to escape from the moon.
In Sri Malyavanta Raghunatha temple, near Hampi, the same lunar eclipse was carved, but with a unique and unparalleled twist in the ‘visual narration’ of the story. Here, the serpent Rahu is shown approaching the full moon; and interestingly, the rabbit is shown comfortably sitting on a patch of the ground next to the moon, but not within it. Such a visual delineation clearly suggests that the rabbit had become fully aware of the periodic nature of the lunar eclipse. Apparently, after sensing the impending danger of the eclipse, the rabbit had intelligently hopped onto the ground. Further, as the rabbit is shown facing the moon, it is quite evident that it is waiting for the completion of the eclipse so as to get back to its original abode, the moon. To the best of my knowledge, this kind of ‘visual narration’ is most likely unique to this carving with no parallel in any textual sources on the episode. Therefore, in my opinion, the masterly idea and its creative presentation in the carving could indeed be exclusively credited to the anonymous artist(s) who had carved the relief on the outer compound wall of the temple.
The hare in the moon also figures in Chinese, Javanese and Japanese literature and art; and, a different set of ancient Indian texts also mention the presence of the Kasturi Mriga (musk deer) in the moon, but the same could perhaps be explored in a separate article.
Srinivas Sistla
Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam
(sistlasrini@gmail.com)