Cuckoo

(Cuculus melanoleucus or jacobinus)
Indian songbird intimately connected
with both love and the monsoon rains.
The cuckoo’s mating season comes during the monsoon,when its piercing calls
are fancifully interpreted as piu, piu
(“beloved, beloved”). These cries are
said to excite the hearts of human
lovers—either to passion if they are
together or to bitter pain if the monsoon
is keeping them apart. The cuckoo’s
behavior in the rainy season is supposed
to reflect its love for the monsoon.
According to popular belief, the cuckoo
drinks only raindrops, which means that
for much of the year, it is tormented by
thirst. In devotional (bhakti) poetry, the
cuckoo is often used as a symbol for the
devotee (bhakta), who is tormented by
the deity’s absence but who waits
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Cuckoo
patiently for the divine presence. In
Sanskrit poetry this bird is called the
chataka; in modern dialects it is known
as the kokila or koil.