What's a Krauncha Bird?

[Webimpulse]

Namaste all,

I have a question that I am asking out of sheer, raw curiosity - good thing I'm not a cat! :D Early on in the Ramayana, there's a bird called a "krauncha bird" that is mentioned; the rishi (I think that was his title) who wrote the Ramayana is mentioned as having listened to a pair of these birds when a hunter shot one of them with an arrow. The rishi cursed the hunter in a specific meter, and this meter became the basis for the meter of the Ramayana.

However, I looked up "krauncha bird" on Google, and I can't find any solid definition provided. Several birds that live in India are instead brought up, but none have been solidly identified as a "krauncha" bird. So that's why I'm asking this forum: what the heck is a krauncha bird? I simply must know! :p

[Jodhaa]

I found this reference to a type of crane via wikipedia:

The Demoiselle Crane is known as the Koonj (कूंज (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi), کونج (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu), ਕੂੰਜ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_language)) in the languages of North India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_India) and Pakistan, and figure prominently in the literature, poetry and idiom of the region.
The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit) word kraunch, which is a cognate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognate) Indo-European (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European) term for crane itself.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoiselle_Crane#cite_note-ref67xemux-1) In the traditional telling of the history of Valmiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valmiki), the composer of the Hindu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu) epic Ramayana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana), he composed his first verse when he saw a hunter kill the male of a pair of Demoiselle Cranes that were making love. Observing the lovelorn female circling and crying in grief, he cursed the hunter in verse. Since tradition held that all poetry prior to this moment had been revealed rather than created by man, this verse concerning the Demoiselle Cranes is regarded as the first human-composed meter.[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoiselle_Crane#cite_note-ref56hoceg-5)
The flying formation of the koonj during migrations also inspired infantry formations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_formation) in ancient India. The Mahabharata (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabharata) epic describes both warring sides adopting the koonj formation on the second day of the Kurukshetra War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurukshetra_War).[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoiselle_Crane#cite_note-ref86vicuv-6)





Interesting question =) Thanks for asking it. This is just one source of course but maybe someone else has more clues.
EDIT: So far all references I can find describe some kind of crane.

[Caltha]

Namaste,

Just for interest, there is a yogasana called Krounchasana that gets translated into English as Heron. Maybe the same bird?

Here's a picture of it:
http://www.ashtangayoga.info/practice/intermediate-series-nadi-shodhana/item/krounchasana/

[Arjuni]

Namasté,

I just came across this sentence in Jan Gonda's The Vision of the Vedic Poets, amidst a discussion of the haṃsa:

"The bird kruñc, like the 'swan,' was credited with the power of separating milk from the water with which it had been mixed."

To me, this ability to unmix water and milk would represent the pure discernment that separates Truth from untruth.

Besides "heron" or "crane," I have also seen the word translated as "curlew."

[ShivaFan]

Namaste Webimpulse

In Kautilya’s Arthashastra in book 14 “Secret Means” there is a line which reads:
“When birds such as a hamsa, krauncha, mayúra and other large swimming birds are let to fly at night…”
Therefore we can see a Krauncha is (1) LARGE and a (2) SWIMMING BIRD

In the Valmiki Ramayana, we find Kabandha extolling to Rama the features of the Pampa Lake, in which he states “you will trek to an auspicious lotus Lake called Pampa … red and blue lotuses beautify that Pampa Lake. There the dwellers of the Lake’s waters will be letting out peeps in tuneful voice, the Krauncha..”

Therefore we can see a Krauncha (3) DWELLS ON A LAKE and specifically also on the PAMPA LAKE
NOTE: Pampa Lake - "Pampa Sarovar is a lake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake) in Koppal district near Hampi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampi) in Karnataka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnataka). To the south of the Tungabhadra River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungabhadra_River), it is considered sacred by Hindus and is one of the five sacred sarovars, or lakes in India. In Hindu mythology Pampa Sarovar is regarded as the place where Pampa, a form of Shiva's consort Parvati (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati), performed penance to show her devotion to Shiva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva)"
(see Map with Tungabhadra River below)

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/sites/indiawaterportal.org/files/node_images/Rivers%20and%20lakes%20of%20India%20Political_Wikipedia.png

There is also a later verse supporting the bird as lake dwelling, “On the sand dunes of rivers Swans, Sarasas, Cakravakas and Krauncha birds are everywhere” …

And there is a reference to a cavern called Riksha that is guarded by a demon called Maya, from which was seen “swans and the waterfowls like Krauncha” exiting from the cavern “their bodies drenched in water and reddened with the dapples of lotus pollen”, and later there is a reference to “wading birds like Bhasa, Krauncha, Kurara …”

Therefore we can see a Krauncha (4) IS A WATER BIRD

Of course we must go to the opening of the Ramayana itself, where we find Valmiki approaches the Tamasa River where he encounters the two Krauncha Birds male and female, of which the Husband (male Krauncha) was killed by the arrow of a hunter and the Wife (female Krauncha) laments thus putting into course the first “slokas” or verse of the Ramayana. Here in the Valmiki Ramayana we find the verse:

patinaa= with husband; saha+chaariNa= along with, moving - together with husband; which husband is with; taamra+siirSeNa= red crested; matten= lusty one; patriNaa= with good wings; sahitena= always has his heart for her; tena+ dvijena= from that, bird [male bird]; viyukata= separated; bhaarya + tu = wife of, [female bird,] but; nihitam= slain; mahii+tale= on ground, surface; ceSTamaanam= reeling; shoNita+ pariita + angam= blood, covered, wings [or body]; tam+dR^iSTva= him [male bird,] on seeing; karuNaam + giram= with piteous, utterances; ru+raava= lamented, wailed sounds; vai= really.

“She who is ever together with her husband, a male bird with flighty wings and with a prideful red crest, and one who always had a heart for her, but she is now separated from him, and gone is that togetherness; and she, on seeing her slain husband whose body is blood-soaked, and who is reeling on the ground in the anguish of pain, bewailed with piteous utterances. “ [1-2-11, 12]
Therefore we can see a Krauncha (5) HAS A RED CREST
Summary:


WE CAN THUS SEE A KRAUNCHA IS:

(1) LARGE
(2) SWIMMING BIRD
(3) DWELLS ON A LAKE
(4) IS A WATER BIRD
(5) HAS A RED CREST OR RED HEAD


Therefore, I surmise this is indeed a CRANE of which they have Red Crests or Red Heads, examples being where I live we have Sandhill Cranes, and there is the rare Whooping Crane, the Japanese Crane, and still in abundance in India is the Sarus Crane though it is not as wide spread as it’s former range.

Keep in mind, it could be a subspecies of the Sarus Crane of India that is now extinct, or related to the “Sharpii” Crane also know as the Eastern Sarus Crane which has been decimated:

“The current range of the Indian Sarus Crane G. a. antigone includes the plains of northern, northwestern, and western India and the western half of Nepal’s Terai Lowlands. Small numbers are also observed in Pakistan. The Eastern Sarus Crane G. a. sharpii formally occurred throughout Indochina. Over the last fifty years it has been decimated throughout this range, but still occurs in smaller numbers in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Eastern Sarus Cranes in Yunnan Province (China) and Lao People’s Democratic Republic are either rare or recently extirpated. The Eastern Sarus in Thailand was thought extirpated in the mid-20th Century. The Australian Sarus Crane G. a. gilli, occurs in northeastern Australia.”


Eastern Sarus Crane Thailand (before being decimated) - note cannot embed this photo, you will have to use the link.

http://api.ning.com/files/6vcR4DY0yOdL8X9*qjXJoY4qOpXgh60LgmgEnHg9vMzmGu8yawrHphX7qbLeAg2T8H6EyDDRCgzL8AqNB5g5I1V4B5xlVqjC/EastersSarusCrane1.jpg?width=300

Eastern Sarus Crane:


http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/bugphai/bugphai1209/bugphai120900040/15384559-couple-eastern-sarus-crane.jpg

Sarus Crane India:



http://orientalbirdimages.org/images/data/sarus_cranes_11_ncd.jpg
Sharpii in Vietnam:

http://vietsciences.free.fr/lichsu/lichsucacnuoc/images/seudaudo.gif

Om Namah Sivaya