Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c4.761

c4.761

ARAYANNAM. The swan (Haṃsa).
1) General. A bird (Haṃsa) in Devaloka. The prefix ‘ara’ denotes royalty, sublimity, greatness etc. Many purāṇas describe Arayannam as a bird of the Devas. Mānasasaras at the heights of the Himālayas is the permanent abode of these divine birds. They do not like the rainy season. So they come down to the earth when rain begins at the Mānasasaras, and go back to the Saras, when rain begins on the earth. This phenomenon explains Ceruśśeri’s (Malayalam poet) statement in his Kṛṣṇagāthā that ‘when rain set in haṃsas—Arayannams—began flying away’.