Babru
vāhana (or Babhru vāhana) was a son of Arjuna born of Manipur princess
Chitrangada in the great epic of Mahabhārata. The heroic character of Babru vāhana has been made ever unforgettable
by the superior histrionics of the well known veteran actor Dr Rajkumar in a
Kannada movie. In Mahabharata, the valiant son Babru vahana fights against his
father Arjuna on the trail of Ashwamedha.
Inspite
of popularity of this particular mythological character, the essential meaning
of the unusual word “babru” has
remained elusive and mysterious. The suffix vāhana
in the word Babruvahana represents a vehicle, essentially an animal motif well
entrenched in the Indian tradition.
Thus
mooshika vāhana means the one riding
on a “mooshika” (=rat); mayura vāhana represents the one who
travels on a mayura (=peacock), and similarly
we have Nandi vāhana (nandi=bull), Simha vāhini (simha= lion)
and so on. Thus the term Babru vāhana suggests that the prefix babru is an animal. Then what exactly is the animal babru?
Totem Babru, the
mongoose
The Pali-English
dictionary throws light on the meaning of the word babru. The entry on “babbu” (in
page number 536) explains that babhruka
in Sanskrit represent an ichneumon. The ichneomon includes animals such as
mangoose, otter or beaver which was considered an enemy of dragons and
crocodiles in mythology.
In Rig
Veda the word “babhru” apparently represented the brown
(color). The word “babhru” was also found in Akkadian language but it was without
any clear meaning. Liny Srinivasan (2011) has reported that Prof Gordon applied
the purported Vedic meaning (brown) to Akkadian word”.
Totem Mongoose
Obviously,
this leads us to a natural confusion whether we should take babru
as an animal or a color. However the name of the character Babru vāhana clearly connotes that it is a live vehicle (animal)
like other mythical vahanas described in the epics. Therefore, the babhru
should have been an animal most probably the common mongoose.
The
serpent (Nāga) is being venerated since antiquity by numerous tribes and the traditional
practice continues to date. The Nāga was the totem for many of the ancient tribes.
It is possible that mongoose was also a traditional tribal totem though there
is paucity of historical documented data on this aspect.
Mongoose
(Babru) is a daring animal that fights against the serpent valiantly and this
feature should have appealed to some of the ancient tribes to adopt it as
totem.
Extention of idea with time
It is reported
that in Rigveda, the word “babhru” refers to
color of deep brown or reddish brown. The deep brown incidentally is also the
color of the skin of mongoose and allied creatures. It not clear whether the connotation of brown color
was adapted from the skin color of the animal babhru.
However, with
passage of time the term “babhru” has been applied in different ways such that
the original Pali/Prakrit meaning of the word has almost been lost. Hosabettu Vishwanath has gathered a number of
additional meanings implied to the word "babhru". Summarizing his data, the term “babhru” found to have been applied apparently in post-Mahabharata Sanskrit literature as follows:
1. A lover of red flowers, like lotus. ( Alludes
to 'the Sun'.)
2. A reddish yellow, to red rays of dawn. ( The
epithet for Sun who rides on Aruna)
3. A thunderbolt. (Thus the one who rides over a
thunderbolt' is Indra the God of sky.)
4. A tolerant, merciful sustainer of Universe (Vishnu).
5. A reddish brown cow (Alludes
to Shiva on a bull)
6. Babhravi - is a form of
Goddess Durga.
7. Babhruka - is a
constellation of stars.
These extention of the ideas
to the term Babhru/Babhru-vahana, variously attribute the implied meanings to
Sun, Vishnu or Shiva or even Durga. However we do not get such extended ideas
in Mahabharata, wherein Arjuna confronts his son Babhru Vahana.
In other words Mahabharata does not projects the Arjunas' son Babhru-Vahana as
an incarnation or form of Sun, Vishnu or Shiva or else.
Therefore,
it would be apt to restrict the original meaning of the word Babhru to an
animal like mongoose or a mythical dragon as implied in the Pali dictionary.
The implication of a dragon appears logical as Manipur the homeland of Babhru
Vahana of Mahabharata has had certain geographic affinity to
China.
Babba
The
entry of the word “babba” as an accepted synonym for “babru’ (or babhru) in
Pali- English Dictionary cited above is quite interesting. Incidentally the
term “Babba” is a common pet name for boys in many regions
including the Tulu nadu. Such pet names appear to have been inherited from days
of our tribal cultures.
Babruwada
It
is interesting to note that one of the habitations (hamlet) within Ankola town
near Karwar in Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, is known as “Babruwada”.
Within the colony there is a small shrine devoted to the deity known as Babru!
(I
could not verify the exact present form and nature of the deity Babru - especially whether
it has been transformed to any of our current Vedic forms). However, it is clear that the worship of Babru
is vestige of an ancient practice inherited from the history.
Cult of Akkadian
Origin?
It
is possible that the Babru worship cult arrived in the West Coast (such as
Ankola) along with ancient tribal immigrants during the ancient history. The
existence of the word “Babru” in Akkadian (as cited above) leads me to such a
suggestion.
There
is another parallel example of ancient worship of exotic deity Kapri near Kadwada near Karwar, Uttara
Kannada. The original cult of Kapri can also be traced to the ancient African
insect deity Kapri. Traces of the forgotten cult of ancient Kapri worship can
also be tracked in the city of Mangaluru, where we find a locality named as Kapri gudda, near Attavara.
Babba, Babra Villages
Coming
back to the ancient forgotten totem cult of Babru/Babba
we find villages not less than 18 named as Babra or after Babba (Babrala,
Babrana, Babrani, Babrapur, Babbanpur Babbidi, Babbalpur, Babbur Babruliang etc)
in various parts of India, such as Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharshtra,
Rajastan, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Inferences
Based
on the analysis of the available data, it appears that the ancient tribal name
Babru ( ~ Babba) possibly represented mongoose which was an
animal totem for some of the ancient tribes
of India. The remnants of tribal cult of
Babru worship (similar to the remnant cult of
Kapri) existing sporadically in the West Coast of Karnataka appears to have prevailed among
the ancient immigrant tribes from the African countries.
References
Liny
Srinivasan, Dr. (2011) Desi words speak of the Past. Indo Aryans in the ancient Near East. 572 p. (also in Google books.)
Rhys
Davids, T.H and William Stede [Editors]: (1921-25). The
Pali -English Dictionary. The Pali Text Society.
813p.
R
