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The Neophron vultures of Thirukkalukundram
Newsletter for Birdwatchers, Vol. XVII.No.6, June 1977, pp. 1-4
Gift Siromoney
also in Indological Essays, Commemorative Volume II for Gift Siromoney
edited by Michael Lockwood, Madras Christian College, 1992

Professor K.K.Neelakantan in his recent article on the sacred birds of Thirukkalukundram has raised a number of queries and has aroused the interest of the readers. Some of his queries are the following: Was it only for a few days in the third week of November 1976 that the birds kept away from the temple? If not, and the vultures have totally given up the habit, what is the reason for it? Are the birds which had kept up the ritual dead? Would they have died simultaneously? Are there any scavenger vultures surviving in the area?

If the vultures had really stopped coming one might even attribute it to the increased use of pesticides by the local farmers. However I wish to assure the readers that the birds are alive and well and that they are busy bringing up a young one!

I climbed up the Tirukkalukundram hill which is about 500 feet high, with a camera  but without my binoculars which had gone for cleaning. There are steps going up to the very top. At the summit there is a seventh century Siva temple with beautiful sculptures in the sanctum. Over this small temple has been built a tower or vimanam . The entrance to the temple is reached by flights of steps. At the foot of the steps, on the eastern side, there is an open area with bare rock which is set apart for feeding the birds. About two hundred pilgrims from different parts of the country had gathered to witness the birds. At 1055 hrs. I saw an adult bird taking off from the temple tower. On closer inspection I saw a juvenile bird in a nest which was visible from the steps leading to the temple entrance. The temple tower remained hidden by trees from the view of the pilgrims gathered at the foot of the steps to witness the birds. The nest was on the northern side towards the western corner. There was enough flat surface on the cornice for the large nest and it was partly sheltered by the spherical shikara of the tower.

On an earlier visit I had noticed the Neophron breeding in a nest on the northern side of the same tower. The breeding of the birds on the same hill was reported some time in 1957 in the Sunday edition of the Madras Mail.

Let me narrate the incidents that took place on April 27, 1977.


     1120 hrs. Two men carrying a large brass vessel with rice pudding arrived. They entered the enclosure meant for feeding the birds. One of them persuaded the spectators not to be in the way of the flight path of the birds and asked them to go to the special enclosure set apart for spectators. Some people who had visited the temple earlier, reported that the food left after feeding the birds was normally distributed to the pilgrims present and some offerings in the form of money collected from them. One of the men who had come with the food for the birds, sat down facing east, on a wooden plank which was placed on the bare rock. The large vessel with a spoon, and a smaller vessel were kept in front of him. A circular metal tray and small metal dish were also kept on the rock in front of him. He held an ordinary umbrella over his head for protection against the sun. The man was not the presiding priest as observed by Dr. Salim Ali. He was not wearing the sacred thread. He had taken over the feeding from his late uncle who used to do the honours.

     1140 hrs. A Neophron vulture made its appearance. There were Pariah kites also in the air.

     1148 hrs. Two vultures could be seen. The umbrella was folded and kept behind. The man tried to attract the attention of the birds by knocking the metal dish on the rock as well as by slightly lifting and letting go the metal tray on the rock. The birds did not alight.

     1203 hrs. Two birds were sighted again.

     1217 hrs. One bird was sighted.

     1220 hrs. One bird was sighted. The birds usually came from the plains from the north eastern side and rose up with the hot air current over the hill.

     1231 hrs. One bird came up from the plains carrying what appeared to be offal. The way in which it carried it in its beak gave me the impression that it was carrying the entrails of some animal with a part of an intestine of length of about fifty centimeters.

     1240 hrs. A bird came from the direction of the nest which was not visible from where I was standing

     1258 hrs. Two birds were sighted. Each time a bird was sighted the man tried to draw its attention by making noise with the tray and the dish.

     1310 hrs. The pilgrims were getting a little restless and so was the man. He got up and sat down again. Two birds were seen once again. One bird carried some thing in its beak which looked like offal. The bird disappeared in the direction of the nest.

     1315 hrs. A bird flew away from the direction of the nest. The man got up and walked about.

     1318 hrs. Two birds were sighted again and the man rushed back to his seat.

     1325 hrs. The man got restless. So did the pilgrims. The man got up and sat down after some time.

     1354 hrs. Many pilgrims left. The man left with his assistant with the food and the vessels. 

During the three hours of waiting I could see Pariah Kites, the Striated Swallow and the House Swift flying close to the man. The man assured me that the birds would not come again that day. I looked at the notes I had taken and reckoned that the birds took about 50 minutes to reappear. I rushed up the flight of steps and stationed myself at a convenient spot from which to take photographs.

     1403 hrs. A bird reached the nest.

     1409 hrs. The bird flew away.

     1425 hrs. A bird could be seen at a distance.

     1432 hrs. A single bird. An aggressive male monkey, one of the many monkeys in the place, tried to attack me!

     1458 hrs. A single bird .

     1508 hrs. An adult seen in the nest. It must have just alighted.

     1515 hrs. The adult still in the nest. Its tail could be seen from outside. Two 'shots' rang out. They were probably from some well being deepened by dynamite charges. The bird was not disturbed.

     1521 hrs. The adult bird left the nest.

     1526 hrs. The juvenile could be seen clearly. Its beak appeared lighter in colour in contrast to the neck feathers which were blackish. The wings were blackish with a dirty white patch. The chest was blackish. The juvenile spread its wings and flapped them vigorously as though about to take off. It made a harsh call which I noted down as di kita dim The vultures are believed to be always silent. No calls have been reported so far.

     1530 hrs. Juvenile still walking about the edge of the nest.

     1531 hrs. It shook its head and settled down!

After I made some enquiries of the local people and the men connected with the feeding of the birds I found that there was some kind of conspiracy!  No local man would admit that the birds were not that regular. It was not admitted that the birds did not come for four days in a row,  some time back. Over the period of years I had formed the opinion that the birds do not come regularly at the appointed time of 1130 to 1200 hrs. Before climbing the hill I had made enquiries whether the birds had come early or late the previous day. Some said that it did come for food but was late. Later I found that the birds had not come for food even the previous day, a fact which many were unwilling to admit. The only way of collecting any reliable information is to assign the work to some one who is willing to study the habits of the bird so that he can observe them daily for a year. Collecting information from the local people is not of much value. Even the local people agree that on many occasions only one bird came for the rice pudding and not two. There are photographs showing a man feeding one bird.

The practice of the bird being fed by an attendant must have gone on for a long period but it is difficult to find out for how long. In the Chingleput District Manual written about a hundred years ago there is a reference to this practice.

"Every day two birds of the kite species come to the mountain and are fed by an attendant Brahmin. The same two are believed to have come from Benares to receive this daily dole from time immemorial".

However the inscription found on the temples of Thirukkalukundram do not make any reference to this practice. The inscriptions are from the seventh century A.D. to the end of the fifteenth century. In Tamil literature the place is referred to as Kalukkundram, the vulture-hill, from the seventh or eighth centuries A.D. Except for the place name there is no other reference. In the Tiruvilayaadal Puranam of the sixteenth century there is a reference to a place,  normally identified as Thirukkalukundram, where two vultures (instead of kalugu, the word gangam is used to denote the birds) did tapas or penance. In a hundred pillar mandapa assignable to c.1600 A.D. there is a representation of two birds placing a garland on a Siva linga. That representation found in a local temple does not show the birds being fed. 

There are many legends of the Siva linga being worshipped by various animals and birds. Here it is quite possible that a long time ago a pair of vultures had taken shelter in a seventh century pallava temple called the oru kal mandapa near the top and the legend of the two vultures that worshipped the Siva linga could have grown.

We hope that more work will be done on the Neophron Vultures in the near future.

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