indian national peafawl peacock

[Rakesh Sharma]

Indian Peacock (called Mayura in Sanskrit) has enjoyed a fabled place in India since ancient times. In imagery Lord Krishna is always represented wearing a peacock feather tucked in his headband.

Ancient kings in India were said to have gardens to raise peafowl where guests were invited to see the peacock dance during the mating season. Due to this close relationship with humans for thousands of years, they have entered ancient Indian stories, songs and poems as symbols of beauty and poise. As the mating season coincides with the onset of monsoon rains and the month of Shravan in the Hindu calendar, many songs of rains have peacock-dance mentioned in them. One possible origins of the name of the famous Maurya dynasty of ancient India is probably derived from the word Mayura as the ancestors of the Mauryas are thought to be peafowl-keepers of a royal court in eastern India.
Hindu mythology describes the peafowl as the vehicle or vaahan for Karthikeya, also called Murugan, the brother of Ganesha, the goddess Saraswati, and the goddess Mahamayuri.

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