| Hindu Ideals |
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HUMANITARIAN IDEALS |
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| The story of King
Sibi is unique in many respects - Not only do we find illustrated therein the unbounded
love which a person should entertain towards all beings including birds and beasts,
but also the paramount duty of protecting even at the risk of one's own life anybody who
seeks refuge. This duty relates even to the beings other than one's own kind like the bird
in the story. Rightly as Indra said the fame of King Sibi has been enshrined not only in our great epics like the Ramayana and the Maha - bharatha, but also in the Tamil literature and the literatures of our other regional languages in the ancient Tamil classic known as Pura Nanooru we find reference to King Sibi and his heroic sacrifice for the sake of the dove.' Therein, it is said about a particular king that he was the descen- dent of the great warrior who relieved the distress of a bird.' In fact, the words 'Sembian’ means the Chola and this is a. modified form of the word ‘Sibi', meaning thereby that the Chola is the descendent of the great Sibi. In another stanza in the same classic, it is said that the king is the descendant of one who put the whole of his body in the balance for weighing it in order to relieve the distress of a bird. Reference is also made to the heroism of the king who " made an act of boundless charity by putting himself in the balance to sale the life of a small bird which tried to escape from the sharp clutches of an eagle.'
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| About Humanitarian Ideals |
