2 Birds in Sanskrit Literature (iv) The Rook (19") is wholly black but the adult bird has the basal third of its bill almost white. It is the frater or the Black-and- white-billed Crow of and probably the of the lexicons (v) The Eastern Hooded Crow (19") has the entire head and neck, the central part of the upper breast, the wings and tail glossy black. The upper and lower back and underparts are drabgrey. It is the the 'Black-faced' Crow of EUM. P (vi) The House-Crow (17") which appropriates the daily furafer of the twice-born, and the offerings to the dead is the afage or . It bears the distinctive name of भरमच्छविकाक after its grey neck and breast in वसंतरान. It the writers of the lexicons. (vii) The Jackdaw of Kashmir (13"), migrating in winter to the near- by plains, is the fes (thieving Crow) of Mahabharata and of वसन्तराज As a preliminary to a detailed consideration of these varieties, a workable classification of Crows may be referred to here. The referater mentions three kinds of Crows, viz., (a) ters, the Raven, (b) ere, the all black Crow like the Carrion and Jungle Crows, and (c) ara, the House-Crow. The fag, 6. 8. also distinguishes between and ara, and the distinction has been observed in the Mahabharata and the Purâņas where punishments based upon the doctrine of re-birth are provid- ed for petty larceny. Persons stealing fish or flesh, for instance, are destin- ed to be reborn as the carrion-eating a while those filching iron goods would become 448. Again, the punishment for theft of milk is rebirth as an all-white Egret (, afer) based upon a similarity of colour, or a T by way of a complete contrast of colour. Similarly, in poetic compari- sons between the Crow and the Indian Koel the former is invariably a
- , and not a , thus emphasizing the jet black of the plumage com-
mon to both. Speaking generally, however, this distinction between the ** and the has faded away both in the lexicons and the popular mind. Even Varahamihira and others have not observed it. 5. अमरकोश has द्रोण and काकोल for the Raven, andकाक, etc., for other species including the House Crow अभि० चिन्तामणि, कल्पo and राजनिषण्ड have adopted this two-fold division but give additional names under each of them. The common names for a Crow need not detain us but the so- called synonyms for the Raven require some consideration. These are :- (a) वृद्ध, द्रोण, दग्ध, कृष्ण, पर्वतेभ्यस्त्वसी पर. (each of these cpithets followed by the word काकः) बनाश्रयश्च काकोल -अभि० चिन्तामणि 1. M. Bh. 13.111,123; Brahma P. 217, 108. 2. M. Bh. 13.111, 102; Märk. P. 15,; Garuda P. 1.226,25; Brahma P. 217, 107. art in the last two is clearly a w.r, for te (iron). 3. M. Bh. 13.111, 110; Märk, P. 15, 22; Garuda P. 2.2,80; Brahma P. 217, 98. 4. Manu, 12, 62: Yajñavalkya, 3, 214, Crows and their Allies (b) धय पलप्रियः अरण्यवायसो द्रोणः काकोलो घनवागपि द्रोणकाको महाप्राणः स प्रोक्तः क्रूरवागपि (c) द्रोणस्तु द्रोणकाकः स्यात् काकोलोऽरण्यवायसः । बनवासी महाप्राणः क्रूररावी फल (पल? ) प्रियः ॥ The 4t has a mixed list : (d) द्रोण: सकृत्प्रजोरिष्टो ध्वाडक्षः करट इत्यपि कृष्णकाको वृद्धकाक ऐन्द्रिः काकोल आसुरः । कल्पकोश. - राजनिघण्टु. 3 An examination of the above synonyms for the Raven shows that lexico- graphers have treated all black Crows including the Raven as varieties of a common type. Nevertheless, some at least of the above names, based as they are on some characteristic of each bird, offer the best clue to the ident- ity of their respective owners. The lexicons, as is well known, were prepared as help to the poets to enable them to pick out words that would suit the metre in hand, and this has resulted in a mix-up of names of allied forms everywhere. The point is that some of the apparent synonyms for re are really specific for other black Crows while a number of descriptive epi- thets like ,, etc., have been converted into adnouns or subs- tantive names. It may well be that when the Indo-Aryans spread beyond and away from the Punjab the Jungle Crow (me or ) replaced the Raven in their minds and thus came to be equated with it in the lexicons. At the same time the Brown-necked Raven, the Rook and the Jackdaw were forgotten or lost their identity. 6. tr, author of an alleged book of the 13th century entitled refer E, perhaps available in translation only, has arbitrarily selected twelve. names for describing as many varieties of the Crow and given fanciful des- criptions of them. His treatment of other birds also, with exceptions here and there, is equally fanciful but even his absurd classification makes it 1. For the f-T See Section C of this article. 2. The name, fz (lit. son of Indra), is based upon a story related in Padma Puriņa, Uttara Khanda, Ch. 242, Nrimha P., Ch. 43, and in the interpolated chapter, between chs, 95 and 96, of Ayodhya Kanda of Valmiki Ramayana (Bombay ed.). Jayanta, the son of Indra, assuming the form of a crow, insulted Sità and Rama punished him by depriving him of one of his eyes. Since then crow is supposed to have only one eye which, however, moves from one eye-socket into the other, for does not the crow turn his head from side to side when he looks at things below from a high perch? This story is also the basis of the rule of logic known as काकासिगोलकन्याय. 3. are here simply means demon-like and are ar (the devil of a crow) can only be the Raven. No lexicon gives are or age for a crow. 4. He postulates twelve varieties of crow under the names- 1. काक, 2. करट, 3. बलिपुष्ट 4.5. 11. द्रोणकाक, and 12. काकोल. 6. आत्मघोष 7. परभूत 8 बायस, 9 चिरजीविनु, 10. मौकूलि,
