Kupamanduka

Kupamanduka/ Kupamanduka-nyaya (कूपमण्डूक) is a Sanskrit language expression, meaning "frog in a well".^[1] In Sanskrit, Kupa means a well and Manduka means a frog. The phrase is used for a small-minded person who foolishly imagines the limits of his knowledge to form the limit of all human knowledge (much as a frog might imagine the well in which it lived to be the largest body of water possible, being completely unable to conceive of anything as vast as an ocean). Equally, if such a frog looked up from its well, and saw but a small circle of sky, it might imagine this tiny disc to be the entirety of the heavens, unaware of the existence of other beings existing beyond the walls of the well and able to see the whole sky bounded by the true horizon.^[2]

Amartya Sen opines that its meaning carries a caution in opposition to insularity.^[3] Kupamanduka denotes a propensity to bigotry and intolerance and the inability to be positive,^[4] or paranoia.^[5] Mohammad Bakri Musa likens it to the Malay language phrase katak di bawah tempurong (frogs under a coconut shell).^[4] The story of the Koopamanduka is often told to children in India and forms a part of many folktales.^[6] A similar idiom (chengyu), zh:井底之蛙 by Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou is also used in Chinese folklore.^[7]

Examples of usage

• "But due to the acute paucity of scientific psychological publications in India, we often suffer the disadvantages of a kupa manduka (frog in the well) existence."^[8]
• "Arrogance and infinite faith in their own wisdom are attributes of the kupa manduka,..."^[9]
• "I think it is not that we see ourselves as a kind of flourishing Kupamanduka, a well-frog confined to a little well but a culture, a civilization, a people that has soared in the world, interacted with the world and not been afraid of interaction."^[10]

See also

• Allegory of the cave
• Frogs in culture

References

1. "Kupa-manduka-nyaya: the logic of the frog in the well (Books) - Vaniquotes". www.vaniquotes.org. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
2. Pattanaik, Devdutt (2011-09-08). "Frog in the well". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2013-06-28. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
3. Amartya Kumar Sen (1 July 2005). The argumentative Indian: writings on Indian history, culture and identity. Allen Lane. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-7139-9687-6. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
4. Mohammad Bakri Musa (2002). Malaysia in the Era of Globalization. iUniverse. p. 459. ISBN 978-0-595-23258-1. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
5. Giuseppe Zaccaria (2001). International Justice and Interpretation / Internationale Gerechtigkeit Und Interpretation: Yearbook of Legal Hermeneutics. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 25. ISBN 978-3-8258-5766-0. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
6. Ramanujan, A.K. (13 January 1994). Folktales from India (The Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library. New York: Pantheon books. ISBN 0679748326.
7. Tsai, Irene (28 July 2008). The Frog in the Well (Chinese - English bilingual book) (Chinese Edition) (English and Chinese Edition) (1st ed.). Hong Kong: CE Bilingual Books LLC. ISBN 978-0980130515.
8. Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress. Indian Science Congress Association. 1959. p. 206. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
9. Shaukat Ullah Khan (2004). Saffronisation of education: instruments and strategies : an analytical critique of NCERT's national curriculum framework for school education syllabus & textbooks (history). Institute of Objective Studies. ISBN 978-81-85220-58-1. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
10. Desai, Ashok V. (2005-02-22). "TWO WINTER CONCLAVES - Having a Travelling Indians' Day is perhaps not a bad idea". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.