पृष्ठम्:Birds in Sanskrit literature.djvu/२३९

426 Birds in Sanskrit Literature हंसाविव पतथो अध्वगाविव - RV 8.35.8. The Swan s monogamous and a pair, being greatly attached to each other, keep together. This is particularly the case with the Mute Swans (see above). The last two references are, therefore, to these birds. None of the Geese can be intended as they live and move in flocks of some size when away from their breeding grounds. White horses (frer: 'shining' and therefore 'white') running, in a race or otherwise, in a line are compared to Swans flying in a line : दिव्यासो अत्याः हंसा इव श्रेणिशो यतन्ते - RV 1.163.10. Freshly cut to size and barked (and therefore white) wooden sacrificial posts carried on their shoulders by men walking in a single file along a forest foot-path look like long-necked Swans flying in a line हंसा इव श्रेणिशो यतानाः शुक्रावसाना:- RV 3.8.9 The Whoopers, when in small parties, fly in a line. The Geese, on the other hand, always occur in large flocks and fly in "bunches" on shorter and in wedge-formation or very long lines on longer flights. A party of Whoopers answering the sonorous call of their leader : हंसा इव कृणुथ श्लोकम् - RV 3.53.10. आदीं हंसो यथा गणं विश्वस्यावीवशन्मतिम्- RV 9.32.3. The f g with a beautiful voice () in the verse below is the same as the सुवण्ण हंस of the जातक, and the हिरण्य हंस of कुमारसंभव (sce paragraphs 7 & 8 below) and, therefore, a young Whooper with a grey- ish brown plumage :- हंसासो ये वां मधुमन्तो अत्रिधो हिरण्यपर्णा उहव उषर्बुधः -RV 4.45.4¹ The ger dedicated to the Moon-god (VS 24.22) and the Wind-god (Ib.24.35) are clearly Swans. The Sun and Moon have often been pictured as a Swan, and its powerful flight and migratory instinct are fully in keeping with the spirit of the Wind. 4. It would appear that in the post-Vedic period when the common- est Geese of India, the Bar-head and the Grey Lag were named and respectively, the Swans, known simply as ge came occasionally to be distinguished as age. An echo of this last fact is preserved in the following equation, probably taken over from some old lexicon :- 1. Cp. "" in paragraph 10 below. Swans, Geese, Ducks and Mergansers "मल्लिको मल्लिका चैव ( मल्लिकास्यैव ?) राजहंसान्तरे द्वयम् ।” 427 हंसः श्वेतो धार्तराष्ट्री, राजहंसो मनोरम: कलहंसोऽपरः प्रोक्तो... -विश्वलोचनकोश i.c. मल्लिक and मल्लिकाख्य are two names for a kind of राजहंस. In other words, the Whooper and the Mute Swan, the area and fer of later times, were regarded as varieties of age. This finds support from aff whose skeleton at least is very much older than aw. It does not refer to the Swan with red bill and feet but only to the Whooper (ar) and the more graceful Mute Swan (मनोरम राजहंस ) and the Grey Lag Goose (कलहंस) which probably shows that af lived in the North-West of India : Later on both the Swans came to be known as as indicated above. The Whooper (or) which is the vehicle of g has also been called रच-राजहंस (See para 11 below). Similarly राजहंस in रामायण and महाभारत, where and we are also mentioned, is a Swan :- क्रीडन्ती राजहंसेन पद्मषण्डेषु नित्यशः । हंसी सा तृणमध्यस्थं कथं द्रक्ष्येत मद्गुकम् ॥ रामायण, 3.56.20. कल्याणवाचः शकुना राजहंसा: महाभारत, 6.3.68.2 क्षेमेन्द्र relates in बृहत्कथा-मञ्जरी 9 140-142, how one धर्मसेन and his wife intently watched a pair of Swans flying high in the sky before their death and were re-born as a pair of age and verse 143, ibid. describes the Swan with its long and curved neck as कुटिल कन्धर The later names, viz., धार्तराष्ट्र and मल्लिकाव्य as also पाकहंस do not occur in very early works like the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahabharata and seem to have been borrowed from Pali literature of the Buddhists. They had travelled widely in Central Asia, China, Tibet, etc. and having observed the differences in Cygnus Davidii, the Whooper and the Mute Swan, named them afresh; and in doing so they appropriated the name age to the beautiful Chinese Swan (Cygnus davidii) with red bill and feet and renamed the Whooper, the next best, as ard and the Mute 1. 'मल्लिकाख्य' is the reading in the नामचन्द्रिका edition (Bombay); क्षीरस्वामी टीका, Index III (Special words), Oriental Book Agency, Poona, 1941; 24, Bombay 1944; Devadatta Tiwaree's edition, Barcilly College, 1875 and as v. 1. in 21, Bombay 1907;-all editions of a 2. These are are the Whoopers with their beautiful trumpeting calls. The in Mahabharata 12.327.6 on the other hand should be the Bar-head Geese as the passage appears to be a later addition by an inexpert hand who has placed the (the Koel) with the Golden Eagle in the Central Himalayas-an impossi- ble thing, for the Indian Koel is "not found in the Himalayas and is scarce in the foot-hills i at their base" (Whistler). It is however possible that the scribe has changed into कृष्ण not knowing that there is such a thing as a श्वेत कोकिल as well. If 80 राजहंस समूह could well be a party of Swans, and not necessarily the Bar-head Geese. 3. Coined from year, the first Swan-mother, or as explained in the next para.