The Tamil Siddhars · Chapter 2 of 2

#The five birds

#The system

Pancha Pakshi Shastra — "the science of the five birds" — is a timing system of the Tamil country. It is attributed by tradition to Agastya. This chapter follows the Tamil printings of 1863 and 1867 (the second a reprint of the first), read from their page images.

Its idea is simple:

1. Every person has a birth bird.
2. Every day and every night is divided into five periods.
3. In each period, each bird is doing one of five activities.

#The birds and the activities

The five birds: Vulture (or hawk), Owl, Crow, Cock, Peacock — always taken in this order, in a circle (after Peacock comes Vulture again).

The five activities, with the words the tables use:

#Your birth bird

The old prints give the birth bird by the birth nakshatra in one short verse (verse 22 of the 1867 print, headed nakshattirapatchi, "the star bird"): from Ashvini, five stars the vulture; the next six the owl; from Uttara Phalguni, five the crow; from Anuradha, five the cock; from Shravana, six the peacock. The verse makes no difference between the two halves of the month.

The groups run 5, 6, 5, 5, 6 nakshatras forward from Ashvini.

Examples: Uttara Ashadha (21) → Cock. Purva Phalguni (11) → Owl.

Other tables in the prints give the birds by the first vowel of a name — a the vulture, i the owl, u the crow, e the cock, o the peacock.

#The five periods

The day runs from sunrise to sunset, the night from sunset to sunrise. Each is divided into five equal periods (yamas). With a twelve-hour day, each is 6 ghatikas, or 2 hours 24 minutes; on longer or shorter days, the periods stretch or shrink with the actual sunrise and sunset.

#The bright-half day: the rule

In the bright half, during the day:

• In each period, the activities go in the order Eat, Walk, Rule, Sleep, Die. The bird that eats is followed by the next bird in the circle, which walks; the next rules; the next sleeps; the next dies.
• In the next period, the eater is the bird before the previous eater.
• In the first period, the eater depends on the weekday: Sunday and Tuesday – Vulture; Monday and Wednesday – Owl; Thursday – Crow; Friday – Cock; Saturday – Peacock.

Sunday (bright half), day, worked out from these rules:

#The bright-half night: the rule

During the night in the bright half:

• The eater is X. The bird before X rules; the one before that dies; the one before that walks; the one before that sleeps.
• In the next period, the eater is the bird after the previous eater.
• First-period eaters: Sunday and Tuesday – Crow; Thursday – Peacock; Friday – Vulture; Saturday – Owl. (For Monday and Wednesday nights the prints contradict themselves in the first and last periods; the middle three follow the same rule.)

Sunday (bright half), night:

Notice that every bird has each activity exactly once in the day and once in the night.

#The death birds

The prints name, in the left-hand column of each table, the death bird (patupakshi) of each weekday: for a person of that bird the whole day is a "death day", on which the tradition advises against beginning important work. In the bright half: Sunday – Owl; Monday – Crow; Tuesday – Cock; Wednesday – Peacock; Thursday – Vulture; Friday – Owl; Saturday – Vulture.

#The dark half

The dark half (amarapaksham) has its own tables in the prints, with other starting birds and other steps:

• Day. The eater is X. The bird before X rules; the one before that dies; the one before that walks; the bird after X sleeps. In the next period, the eater is two places after the previous eater. First-period eaters: Sunday and Tuesday – Cock; Monday and Saturday – Peacock; Wednesday – Crow; Thursday – Owl; Friday – Vulture.
• Night. The eater is X. The bird after X rules; the bird before X sleeps; the one before that walks; the one before that dies. In the next period, the eater is the bird after the previous eater. First-period eaters: Sunday and Tuesday – Vulture; Monday and Saturday – Cock; Wednesday – Owl; Thursday – Crow; Friday – Peacock.

Friday (dark half), day:

The death birds of the dark half: Sunday – Crow; Monday – Owl; Tuesday – Vulture; Wednesday – Peacock; Thursday – Cock; Friday – Peacock; Saturday – Cock.

#Checked against the prints

The tables above were checked cell by cell against the page images of the 1867 print (and the dark-half table also against the 1863 print, which is the same). Of the 500 printed cells, 486 follow the rules exactly. The other 14 fall in four columns where the print breaks its own pattern — a bird given the same activity twice in one day, or two birds "dying" or "eating" in the same period:

• dark half, Monday and Saturday, second period of the day (in both prints);
• bright half, Monday and Wednesday, first and last periods of the night;
• bright half, Saturday, third period of the day.

Because the prints contradict themselves in these four periods, no reading of them can be verified. The Five birds page of this site leaves them blank and shows what the print says. The worked tables above do not fall on any of them.

#The finer divisions

The prints give further tables that divide the periods more finely; they are not covered here.

#How to read this

Pancha Pakshi is a genuine and distinctive Tamil tradition, and its rules are clear enough to compute. But:

• even the old prints contradict themselves in places;
• the research behind this book found no study that has tested whether it works;
• examples of famous deaths offered in modern books as proof are fitted after the event.

Treat it as a piece of Tamil cultural history and as a "rhythm of the day" to reflect on — not as a rule that must be obeyed, and never as a reason for fear.

#Summary

• Five birds (Vulture, Owl, Crow, Cock, Peacock) and five activities (Ruling, Eating, Walking, Sleeping, Dying).
• The birth bird comes from the nakshatra (verse 22 of the 1867 print) or from the first vowel of the name.
• Day and night each have five periods; in each, each bird does one activity, by fixed rotations.
• The rules reproduce 486 of the 500 cells of the printed tables; the other 14 lie in four periods where the prints contradict themselves.

#Exercises

1. Find the birth bird for Hasta (13) by the prints' verse.
2. On a bright-half Sunday, which bird rules in the third period of the day?
3. On a bright-half Monday, which bird eats in the first period of the day?
4. On a dark-half Friday, which bird eats in the first period of the day?

Answers: 1. Crow (12–16). 2. Vulture. 3. The owl. 4. The vulture.