The Peacock and the Sun

How the peacock gets its beautiful plumes

Long ago, it is believed that the Peacock and the Sun were deeply in love long before they got married and lived together in the heavens. So deep was their love that many would believe they have never seen a couple more perfect or a match more ideal than these two. Songs were sung and stories were told of the fantastical romance between the beautiful peacock and the bountiful Sun. Years rolled by.

One day when the Sun was waking up, she happened to shine upon a big garden of mustard on the earth below. The garden looked extra beautiful and colourful that day because it was a flowering season for mustard plants. Rows and rows of green and yellow glowed so beautifully that it caught the attention of the peacock who was, incidentally, sitting leisurely in his room in the heavens.

He quickly turned his whole attention to the beautiful thing down below. To his smitten eyes, the mustard field looked like a dancing maiden - the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen. So smitten was he that despite his true love for his wife, the Sun, his heart quickly gave in to the mysterious maiden dancing on earth. He was deeply in love and wanted to meet her though he knew nothing about her.

He also had to tell his wife the truth. That he wanted to go to earth and stay there for a couple of days for some work. The Sun, being a wise woman, could tell that he is lying. She could also tell that his heart no longer belongs to her. She said, “Do whatever you feel i

Advertisement

s right. If your heart belongs to whoever it is on earth, go and stay there. But please be careful. You don’t even know what is down below.”

The peacock left his house in the heavens and flew downwards to meet his newly found love. When he reached the ground, he was very excited to meet her.

To his dismay, he never found the maiden. 

And he realised what he had done.

He had come all the way down here for nothing. There was no dancing maiden. There were only hundreds of indifferent rows of mustard flowers swaying in the breeze, paying entirely no heed to him. Seeing the Sun shining on the yellow flowers made him miss her badly. What a fool he had been. 

He wept and wept until his cries were heard by the Sun. Seeing him in such a state, the Sun took a pity on the peacock. The Sun asked him to come back. She was ready to forgive him. 

The peacock tried flying. He cannot fly high enough. Try as he might, he couldn't even reach the clouds like the other birds. When he realised that he could never go back to the Sun, his heart broke in two. So did the Sun’s.

Both of them wept bitterly at the thought of never meeting each other again forever. It was then that the golden tears of the Sun fell on the peacock. The peacock got his beautifully coloured tail ever since.

Every morning, the peacock would still greet his old love with dances and cries and a ritualistic flashing of his majestic plumes towards the sky as tribute to the love that he had so foolishly lost.