Hamsa

The name for the Barheaded Goose
(Anser indicus), a bird with several
important symbolic associations; the
most significant is purity and transcendence, since the bird’s color is largely
white. It flies at very high altitudes,
and it is reputed to nest in Lake
Manasarovar in the high Himalayas,
the region believed to be the land of
the gods. Since it is popularly believed to
be able to separate milk and water—
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Hampi
Ruins of the city of Hampi. These structures were once a part
of the capital of the powerful Vijayanagar empire.
drinking for former, and discarding the
latter—the hamsa is also a symbol for
a discriminating person, who is able
to take counsel from many different
people, and to separate the good from
the bad.
Perhaps because of these associations, the hamsa is also the name for a
particular type of Hindu ascetic. The
Hamsa ascetics were described as peripatetic—they were directed to stay no
more than one night in a village or five
nights in a town. They were also directed
to perform different sorts of ascetic
practices, such as subsisting on cow’s
urine or dung, fasting (upavasa) for a
month at a time, or observing the chandrayana rite, a fast in which one
increases and decreases one’s food consumption according to the waxing and
waning of the moon.