Birds story
The story of four learned birds
Tarkshi was an apsara born as a bird because of a curse. In her eathly life she was wife of Drona and daughter of Kandhar and Madanika. She had a happy life with Drona. Tarkshi conceived few days before battle of Mahabharat. As destiny would have it, Tarkshi flew over the battlefield where she saw Arjuna and Bhagdatt, the king of Pragjyotishpur, fighting valiantly against each other. Accidentally an arrow aimed at Bhagdatt went in the direction of Tarkshi and severed the skin of her abdomen. As a result of this, the four eggs she was carrying fell on the ground. At the same time, a huge bell fell from Supratik's neck, the elephant of Bhagdatt, and covered the eggs safely.
When, the great battle was over, a sage by name Shamika visited the battlefield. There he happened to found four chicks beneath the bell. He instructed his disciples to carry the lucky chicks, who survived even during the worst battle by God’s grace to the hermitage and keep it securely at a place safe from predators.
The four birds had a good time in Sage Shamika’s hermitage. Not only that, they learned Vedas and all other lessons Shamika taught to his students by way of listening to his discourses.
One day, while sage Shamika was giving lecture to his disciples, the birds arrived there and said- 'O great sage! You are like our father because you have protected us. You are our teacher also because we have gained knowledge from you. Now we have grown up, kindly tell us what should we do?'.
Shamika replied- 'you don’t look like ordinary birds, tell us, how did you speak so clearly and is there any curse behind your present condition?’
The birds said- 'O sage! Long ago, there used to live a sage, Vipulasvan. He had two sons, namely Sukrish and Tumbaru. In our previous birth, we were the sons of Sukrish. When our father and uncle performed Yagya, we brought them all the required materials. One day, Indra arrived at our hermitage disguised as an aged bird. The aged bird was starving, hence we requested our father to provide him with some food. Upon enquiring by our father, the bird expressed his desire to eat human flesh. Our father tried to dissuade the bird but it did not give up its desire.’
The birds continued their story ‘then our father called us and said that he had promised the bird to feed it with human flesh. So, we were asked to donate our body in order to satisfy the bird's hunger. But being frightened, we expressed our inability to meet the demand of the starving bird. This infuriated our father for we were violating his promise that he had made to the bird. He then cursed us to take birth as birds in our next life and himself got ready to donate his body. As our father was breathing his last, Indra resumed his real self and told to our father that he was only testing his character and devotion. Indra then blessed our father to have divine knowledge and to be free from all obstacles in the spiritual path. Thereafter we also fell at our father's feet and begged for his pardon. We requested him to take back his words but he said that his words would not go vain. But he blessed us to have supreme knowledge even in the form of birds.’
To the Sage Shamika, the holy birds then said again - 'O lord! Thus controlled by destiny we became birds. Now we are strong enough to fly long distances. So kindly free us from the obligation.'
Then, the great sage Shamika advised the four birds to migrate to the Vindhyachal. The birds in their turn passed their time by reciting the Vedas and doing penance at their new place and got respected even by rishies.
The four birds Pingaksha, Vibodha, Suputra and Sumukha said here are the story teller in Markandeya Purana.