216 Birds in Sanskrit Literature and more compressed at the sides. It has no tooth like the Falcon's but has instead a well pronounced festoon. The bare circle around the eye is entirely wanting. They are more arboreal, hunt low in the woods and hedgerows and pounce upon the quarry on the ground and do not pursue it if missed. A Falcon kills by tearing open the back of a bird with its powerful hind claw but a Hawk overpowers with a formidable grip of its claws and does not immediately kill the quarry. Both have fine large and expressive eyes but their colours are different. A Falcon has brown eyes while the Hawk's are yellow. Both these groups are distinguished in Sans- krit nomenclature as well despite the fact that the term as a general name for all birds of prey other than Kites and Vultures, is, like the English term Hawk, very comprehensive. Falcons are in a restricted sense and Hawks प्राजिक (v. 1. प्राजि, प्र + आजि contest ?), वाजि, प्राजि-पक्षी, वाजी and वाज. The विश्वकोश and हेमचन्द्र give पालङ्क as well for a Hawk ( प्राजि, वाजि, पक्षिणि) but if the word is from पाल् रक्षणे as in शब्दकल्पo it should signify a pet Hawk trained for catching birds. Derived from roots, and signifying 'motion' all the names refer to the fast and powerful flight of these rapacious birds. 2 2. As already pointed out in section A, the art of Falconry, prestat, had been practised by the ancient Indo-Aryans from time immemorial and there are references to it in the Dharma-śästra and classical literature as well. The magical sacrifice called श्येनयाग in षविश ब्राह्मण, 4.2 performed with the object of killing or injuring a particular enemy is clearly based upon the practice of Hawking where a trained Falcon brings down the intended quarry; compare also 'श्येनेनाभिचरन् यजेत्'–आप. श्रौ. सू. 22.4.13ff. मनुस्मृति, 3. 164 mentions a Brāhmana practising Falconry or dealing in Hawks as श्येनजीविन् describes a princely young man bearing on his left hand the scratch marks made by the claws of a Falcon : श्येनाअघ्रिग्रहदारितोत्तरकर: औौचित्यविचारचर्चा, का. मा. Pt. 1, p. 152, The Aquafa gives a highly artificial and forced concept of var in 4. 20. 21 but the much later garmentions the flying of Falcons and Hawks (fe) at large birds as quarries : स हापयत्येव करस्थितेन श्येनादिना पक्षिवराणि भूयः का. मा. Pt. 14, p. 66. , an encyclopaedic work of the first half of the twelfth century from South India contains a chapter on Falconry (-fit, Vol.2, 267) and although the text is corrupt at places it gives a fair idea about the various species of Hawks caught and trained for the chase, the methods of 1. Has the English word "Hawk" any connection with Sansk. forms like, from root in the sense of a bird that is discharged from the hand to catch another bird? Eagles, Falcons and Allied Birds catching and training them, their respective merits, the different styles of releasing them after the quarry, and the different kinds of birds a parti- cular Falcon or Hawk is capable of killing. Some of the names for the Falcons and Hawks, current in South India, appear to be of Prakritic origin: सद्य: श्येन विनोदोऽयं कथ्यते कौतुकावहः । शालिवा, जावला, लग्नः प्राजिको लङ्गणस्तथा ॥ संजाणा, वेसरा, गृध्रास्तथा यवलकण्ठिकाः । चण्डी यावावहाः श्येनाः श्येनानां जातयस्त्विमाः ॥ विनोदेषु प्रयु जन्ते ततोऽन्ये जातिमात्रकाः । तोणकश्चेति विख्यातः पुमानल्पशरीरकः ।। Verses 1329-1331. 217 The author of would seem to have incorporated the above names in his list of the birds of prey at page 327 शालियाजावडाश्चैव लङ्गवः प्राज्ञ्जिका अणिः । रङ्गणाश्चैव संवाणा गृधा अपिच बेसराः || अचण्डिका कंविकाश्च द्रोणकाञ्चाबहावकाः । पापद्धि रसिकैज्ञेया गन्धमादनसम्भवाः || Here too the text is parily corrupt. शालिवा has been misread as शालिया, सच्चाण as संवाण, कण्ठिका of यवल कण्ठिका has been separated as कंबिका, and the corrupt चण्डी यावावहा has been read and broken up into अचण्डिका and अवहावा. All these make no sense for me. least. would seem to have been rightly corrected to रङ्गण तोगक, v.1. द्रोणक has been correctly rendered as द्रोणक. Non-Sanskrit names have been underlined above. If fire is a corruption of ff, it may mean 'the noble bird' or 'the noble falcon'. All brown- eyed falcons are known as 'the noble falcons' and the yellow-eyed Hawks as 'ignoble falcons' in English. 3. A later but more comprehensive treatise on the subject is the wife- by Räjä Rudradeva of Kumaon who seems to have lived in the 16th century A.C. In this book the term , like the English 'Hawk', has been used both in the title and elsewhere in the body of the book in the inclusive sense for both Falcons and Hawks, and wife for the Falconer. Sanskrit names of quite a few of these birds, which must have been current in ancient times, had apparently been forgotten due chiefly to the influ- ence of the Jaina and Buddhist doctrine of afger and the effective check exercised by it on the sport of Hawking and the authors of both the above works were forced to use local vernacular names in a Sanskritised garb for some of them. Following the practice of Muslim Falconers Rudradeva classifies the sporting Hawks (v) into two classes: (i) the 'brown-eyed' Falcons as a corresponding to guard of the Persians and (ii) 1. qrafa as a synonym for T should be traced to the same influence.
