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Bahraich, a district in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh along the Nepal border, is dominating the news cycle at the moment. The reason is that nine people have been killed in the area, in what are suspected to be attacks by wolves, though it has not been proven yet.
But while the mainstream, especially vernacular, media broadcasts about the continuing attacks with sensational headlines, graphics and other tools that modern technology can provide, a little fable from a revered text shows that the Indian subcontinent’s relationship with wolves is quite old. And often antagonistic.
The text in question is the Harivamsha (‘lineage of Hari’), an appendix or supplementary text of the epic Mahabharata. Like the latter, the Harivamsha’s authorship is also credited to Veda Vyasa.
In 1897, the text was translated into English by Manmatha Nath Dutt. In a 2018 article in the magazine Open, prominent economist Bibek Debroy described Dutt as “one of India’s greatest translators”.
Dutt translated texts like the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Srimadbhagavatam, Vishnupuran, Markandeyapuran, Bhagavat-Gita and many other works into English.
The translation of the Harivamsha was printed in 1897 in then-Calcutta by H C Dass.
The chapters 58 and 59 tell the story of how Krishna made the people of Vraja (the Braj region straddling modern-day western Uttar Pradesh and eastern Rajasthan) shift to Vrindavan through a divine trick: he created wolves that terrorised the residents so much that they had to leave.
Degraded Vraja
The reason why Krishna wanted the herdsmen to leave Vraja was that it had become too degraded, destroyed by the cowherds themselves.
Krishna tells this to his friend Sangkarshana, in the chapter 58: “O Sir, by sporting everywhere in the forest we have well nigh spoilt it. We cannot play here any more with the cow-herd boys. It has been divested of grass and twigs and the milk-men have up-rooted the trees. This beautiful forest has been destroyed by us.”
He then adds: “All the forests and woods, that were thick (with trees), are now all looking blank like the sky. All these eternally beautiful trees, that were in the cow-sheds well-protected by walls and wooden bolts, have been destroyed by the fire of cow-sheds.”
He also mentions that water, trees, groves and other resorts have now become scarce “in this forest”. The cowherd boys now cannot get a place to rest. “It has become very dreary and trees are not to be seen.”
Dutt does a good job at translating the ancient text. For instance, he mentions that the forest of Vraja, divested of birds, “has become disgusting like rice without curry and other vegetable dishes. Even the delightful winds do not blow here”.
“Woods and vegetables, grown in the forest, are now being sold. The grass is all destroyed and this village has taken the appearance of a city.” Sounds familiar?
Krishna then describes “a charming forest on the bank of Yamuna abounding in profuse grass, endued with all the virtues and freed of thorns and insects. It is named Vrindavana. It is filled with fruits, water and Kadamba trees”.
He tells about a huge mountain by the name of Govardhana and compares it to the mount Mandara near the celestial garden Nandana.
It is the description of the Yamuna that fills today’s reader with pain.
“Like unto the river Nalini flowing in the garden of Nandana, Kalindi, the foremost of streams, passes through its middle as if forming a line for separating hairs on each side of the head. With great joy we will always behold there the mount Govardhana, the tree Bhandira and the charming river Kalindi,” Dutt makes Krishna speak, making one wonder as to what happened to the sacred river, which has become an open sewer, especially between Wazirabad and Okhla, when it flows through the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Lupines emanate forth
While Krishna narrates about Vrindavana and the Kalindi, a thought strikes him. Dutt describes what happens next:
“While thus talking the intelligent Vasudeva engaged himself in a thought. From the hairs of his body there arose hundreds of wolves living on fat, blood and flesh. As soon as they came out they ran in all directions as if it to devasstate the village Vraja. Beholding them fall upon calves, kine and their women the milk-men were stricken with great fear. Forming themselves into groups of five, ten, thirty, twenty and a hundred those dark-faced wolves, bearing the mystic mark of Srivatsa, that had come out of the body of Krishna, began to range there and increase the fear of milkmen.”
The wolves struck terror into the hearts of the people of Vraja. They ate up calves and stole away the boys in the night, writes Dutt. Like what is happening in Bahraich now.
So fearful was the impact of the wolves on the residents of Vraja that no herdsman “dared enter into woods, tend his kine, fetch any thing from the forest and go to the river”.
Vraja to Vrindavana
The terror wrought by the wolves forced the herdsmen and women to look for safer pastures.
“Vaishampayana said:—Seeing the number of those irrepressible wolves, daily increased, all the men and women living in that village held a consultation amongst themselves:—"It is not proper for us to live any more in this forest. Let us go to another great forest where we may live happily and the kine may range of their own accord,” Dutt narrates.
The cries of “My son, my brother, my calf, my cow have been eaten by the wolves” were being heard in every house.
Nanda, the chieftain of Vraja and foster-father of Krishna, agreed to the wishes of his people: “If you are resolved upon going away even this very day, then ask the inhabitants of Vraja to get themselves ready without any delay,” he says in the text.
The herdsmen and their families gathered their belongings and livestock and set forth in the direction of Vrindavana. “Thereupon having gradually arrived at the forest of Vrindavana, they, for the well-being of the kine, set up many extensive stations there.”
Chapter 59 ends with the cowherd families settling in Vrindavana for good.
The story might be old. But it describes the same environmental problems that we face today. Themes like habitat degradation, deforestation and human-wildlife conflict—such as the one in Bahraich now—have continued to the modern day.
Maybe, we can learn from the wisdom of the past to sort out our present and future. It is not asking for too much.