Jacobin Cuckoo - in Culture

In Culture

This species is widely mentioned in ancient Indian poetry as the chātak. According to Indian mythology it has a beak atop its head and it thirsts for the rains. The poet Kalidasa used it in his "Meghadoota" as a metaphor for deep yearning and this tradition continues in literary works in Hindi. Satya Churn Law, however noted that in Bengal, the bird associated with the "chatak" of Sanskrit was the Common Iora unlike the Jacobin Cuckoo suggested by European orientalists. He further noted that a captive Iora that he kept drank water only from dew and spray picked up from plant leaves suggesting that it may have been the basis for the idea that the "chatak" only drank raindrops.