Birds in Sanskrit Literature According to the शब्दकल्पद्रुम 'सञ्चान' is the Shikra. It is one of the best known Hawks of India, a small, stout bird, grey above, rusty below with whitish bars and a fierce golden yellow or orange eye. It is a favourite with Indian falconers as it begins to catch small birds for its keeper within ten days of being caught, Stuart Baker describes it as "a most plucky little Hawk" which is fully supported by the w. w. : 242 • सुशीला जवना हिस्राः शिकाराश्चण्डसाहसाः । च्योतन्त इव पीयूषं दृशोः संस्थानसौष्ठवैः ॥ श्यै. शा., 4.45 The epithet महावीर is thus seen to be a fitting tribute to the most power- ful Eagle on the one hand and a compliment to the pluckiest of small Hawks, the Shikra, on the other. Thus the शिकारा proper of श्यै. शा., incorrectly placed in the group, is the common Indian Shikra while the सिचाना: are the other forms or sub-species of the Shikra occurring in the extreme North- West, the extreme South, and North-East (Assam) of India. 13. The female Shikra is the सञ्चाण of मानसोल्लास where the male is named as द्रोणक or atणक, the same as टुना or टोना of श्यै. शा. 4.32. In Nepal however it is the fermale that is known as तुना which occurs as टोना in Hindi poetry (see quotation in f.n. to para. 5 of the Introductory Sub- section). Finally, the Shikra and the Black-crested Baza feed on flying termites and these, particularly the former as the commoner bird, should be the वाल्मीकि (fr. वल्मी, बनी white-ant) of the Mahābhārat List ( 5.101.11). E. KITES, HARRIERS, & BUZZARDS 1. The Brahminy Kite is “a bright chestnut bird of prey with black wing- tips and white head and breast, found near water." In flight and habits it resembles the Common Pariah Kite and lives on fish caught by itself or on fish-offal to be found near fishing villages, crabs, frogs etc. It is also given to robbing Crows and Common Kites of their food. Its oldest name is कङ्क or more correctly लोहपृष्ठक corresponding to the name, "the Maroon backed Kite", given to it by Jerdon because of its chestnut upper parts. The name कडू, however, belongs to several other birds with of course appropriate descriptive epithets and it has been a matter of some difficulty to separate them, especially because the lexicons have lumped together the different epithets in a common synonymy. Some of the lexical equa- tions relating to different kinds of कडू are reproduced below :- 1) "कंकस्तु कर्कटस्कन्धः पर्कट: कमनच्छदः 2) दीर्घपादो प्रियापत्यो लोहपृष्ठश्च मल्लकः" –वैजयन्ती "कङ्कस्तु कमनच्छदः लोहपृष्ठो दीर्घपाद: कर्कट: स्कन्धमल्लकः" अभि. चिन्तामणि Eagles, Falcons and Allied Birds 3) "कङ्कस्तु लोहपृष्ठ: स्यात्संदंशवदनः खरः । रणालङ्करणः क्रूरः स च स्यादामिषप्रियः" राजनिघण्ट 4) "लोहपृष्ठस्तु कृकर: संदंशवदनः खर: रणालङ्करण: क्रूरः कुकरआमिषप्रियः" “उपचक्र: श्वनतनुः (शुभ्रतनुः ? ) कृशचञ्चुर्मदाविलः" – कल्पद्रुकोश (5) "को लोहपृष्ठे"-मेदिनी, हेमचन्द्र, अमर, विश्वप्रकाश etc. 6) "जलाटनः कङ्कखगे”–हेमचन्द्र 7) 8) 9) 10) "जलाटनो लोहपृष्ठ:"विश्वप्रकाश "कोलपुच्छस्तु कङ्क:"-हारावली "कालपृष्ठस्तु कङ्कपक्षिणि" – विश्वप्रकाश, हेमचन्द्र etc. "दीर्घपादस्तु कङ्कः स्यात्, गलेगण्डस्तु मर्कट:"विकाण्डशेष "बकः कङ्को बकोटच" - राजनिघण्ट, कल्पद्रु. 243 11) 12) "अरिष्ट काककङ्कयोः" विश्वप्रकाश 2. The following five different birds, all going under the name of कङ्क (के जले, जलोपरि, जलसान्निध्ये वा अद्भुति गच्छति) are indicated in the above extracts and everyone of them is a जलाटन and आमिषप्रिय i.e. keeps to the neighbour- hood of water and lives on animal food :- i) The Brahminy Kite is लोहपृष्ठकङ्क, कमनच्छद रणालङ्करणकङ्क, अरिष्टकडक ii) The Common or Grey Heron- कृशचन्बु or संदेशवदन-कङ्क or कङ्क बक (Art. 82 ) iii) The Adjutant Stork दीर्घपाद, गलेगण्ड मर्केट, कर्कटस्कन्ध - (कर्कर-?), कोलपुच्छ, स्कन्धमल्लक, क ( Art. 81) iv) The Lesser Adjutant Stork दीर्घपादक (Art. 81) v) Pallas's Fishing Eagle-प्रियापत्य घर, क्रूर-कालपृष्ठ-, कङ्क where वर and क्रूर mean a noisy श्येन, Eagle, (Art 52). Equation 6 is true of all five, but Nos. 5 and 7 refer to the Brahminy Kite alone. No. 8 and the second half of No. 10 are applicable to the Adjutant alone and refer to its pendant pouch hanging from the neck and in front of its chest, while the first half of No. 10 is shared by it with the Lesser Adjutant as an allied form. No. 1 has equated with the Brahminy Kite, the Adjutants and Pallas's Fishing Eagle. Similarly it will be seen that equations Nos. 2-4 have mixed up several of the above five birds..No. 11 refers to the Grey Heron and even the white Ibis (बक, बर्काट Art. 80 ) as a kind of कङ्क, and No. 12 to the Black Crow or the Raven ((कृष्ण शकुनि) prin- cipally as a bird of evil omen, and the Brahminy Kite as a permanently auspicious bird, the term अरिष्ट as a homonym being understood in its two opposite meanings, viz., 'evil' and 'good', 13. In this article we are concerned with as the Brahminy Kite alone and for others the reader is referred to the Articles noted against them. The present Kite is कमनच्छद because of its beautiful plumage and रणालंकरण because it was commonly present over battle-fields along with Vultures, Ravens, Crows and Common Kites to snatch tit-bits from them,
