Birds in Sanskrit Literature alternative, it may also be a common name for the Storks as a group. The (stork, having terribly large mandibles looking like plough- shares) in the following should be the Black-necked stork with a twelve inch bill. He is a "more regular fisher than most Storks" and has, next to the Adjutant, the largest bill of all. The Adjutant is excluded as the verse is descriptive of the season :- अस्यां तरङ्गितनुतोयपलायमान - मीनानुसारिबकदत्तकरालफालाः ॥ 392 काव्यमीमांसा, Ch. 18 5. The Gigantic or the Adjutant Stork is not only the largest but also the ugliest and most formidable member of the present series. The male is five feet long and stands four and a half feet high, distinguished by a bare red head and neck, and a long pouch of skin hanging from the neck and resting against the chest. The enormous, thick, four-sided bill is wedge-shaped and measures no less than thirteen inches. The wing- expanse exceeds twelve feet. He is indeed a monster ainong birds. The English name Adjutant is derived from his "deliberate, high-stepping military gait as it paces up and down" (Salim Ali), and fully corresponds to Sanskrit दीर्घंपाद (दीर्घः पादन्यासः अस्य, long-paced) as against दीर्घजरूप (long- legged) for other Storks and the larger Herons. Names like-or- are after his bill. He is essentially a scavenger and performed his duties as such in India till not very many years ago and was one of the most familiar birds of towns and villages, and naturally won for himself quite a number of epithets with and as the basic names. They are listed below:- उरगारि उरगाशन, दीर्घपाद कालपृष्ठ कोलपुछ गलेगण्ड गलेशुण्ड गृहबलि प्रिय द्वारबलिभुक् दारबलिभु, स्त्रीदत्तबलिभुक् मर्कट (पर्कट ? ) – मक (v.1. मरकक) स्कन्ध-मल्लक फर्कटस्कन्ध शुक्लाक्ष पुण्डरीकाक्ष बृहन्वन्चु महाचम्चू सिंहनाद etc. अभि. चिन्तामणि and बैजयन्ती have mixed up some of the above names with those for the Brahminy Kite and Pallas's Fishing Eagle, but fare and groft have kept the Kite and Stork apart (Art. 52-C &E). Coming to the propriety of the names in the above list, fe and (both in Wilson and the latter in M. Williams) means the Garuda and a kind of 'crane' and this 'crane' clearly refers to both forms of Adjutant who eat snakes, apparently from analogy with the snake-eating habit attributed to the mythological Garuda. These names are the origin for Hindi firen (fr. ef frog or snake and fir to swallow, later, corrupted to far bone- swallower) and probably also the element 'argala', in the older scientific name of 'Ardea argala'. Unfortunately, however, the name ger led some- one to identify it with Sansk. aferer (a dog) and to apply the latter to this bird, and that is how it finds place in wr. M. Williams also, no doubt similarly influenced, gives arfergree as a name for this Stork. This
- The aranfea (noisy) are in the next verse is the White Ibis (Art. 80).
Storks 393 last really means the medicinal plant or creeper अस्थिसंहारी of भावप्रकाश, गुडच्यादि वर्ग (Vitis quadrangularis), Hindi हाड़जोड़ी supposed to help join up broken bones. Both the Adjutants are known as in Hindi because they eat snakes which supports the derivation of fe given above. Adnoun as is from the Stork's black back and this is shared by Pallas's Fishing Eagle and the Black Buck antelope, while tages (er is Prakrit for chest, and the name means 'a bird with a tail in front of the chest) and गलेगण्ड (also गलेशुण्ड-निषष्टुरत्नाकर) refer to the long pouch. The sericsद्वारबलिभुक्, दारबलिभुक्, and स्त्रीदत्तबलिभुक् is after the scavenging habits of the Adjutant. A Hindu woman does not make any daily ceremonial arfer and what is humorously described as 'afe in these names is the house- rubbish, offal, scraps of animal and other food which were formerly, and in the villages even now, thrown out of doors (r) by the women, and these the Adjutant turned up for offal, scraps, etc. It is in this sense that this (द्वारबलिभुक्) कङ्क is placed in the list of fवकर birds in चरकसंहिता (Lahore edn.). It is also possible that the original name was only arcafing and due to an error in copying are became a which in turn led to "a" as a clear substitute for rc. No other Heron or Stork found in India turns up at these rubbish heaps, though the White Stork takes its place in Europe. No Indian male Stork or Heron is known to receive food from the female during courtship or when sitting on the eggs, and the following verse from the arrafat would seem to be based upon a misunderstand- ing of the name afere for a which is on a par with the absurd statements about the अष्टापद and उत्पादशयन (Art. 71 ) :- स्वयमुपनीतरशन: पुष्णन्ती नीडनिवृतं दयितम् । सहजप्रेमरसज्ञा सुभगा गर्व बकी बहतु ॥-599 (a monkey) is yet another humorous name for this quaint looking bird, and, if from * to cleanse, as assumed by on RV 10.27.20 where he interprets मर्क. as मार्जयिता or शोधपिता would mean a 'scavenger' which the bird certainly is. Or again, the name may mean 'a small devil' after the mythological demon #. The name, however, may well be from root -, in which case the correct form would be, and this would make the bird an attendant on 'death' with Vultures, e.g., upon cholera epidemic or the battlefield, as a carrion-eater. The first of the following two synonymies has mixed up the adnouns or epithets for three different wg birds, viz. the Brahminy Kite (y or 44-84-), Pallas's Fishing Eagle (fx-), and the Adjutant, while the second has confused those for the first and the third bird :- कङ्कस्तु कर्कटस्कन्धः (कर्कर ? ) पर्कट: (मर्कट: ? ) कमलच्छदः (कमन-? ) दीर्घपादो प्रियापत्यो लोहपृष्ठश्च मल्लक: वैजयन्ती
