Birds in Sanskrit Literature and hoarse calls. It is particularly noisy during the breeding season. In short it has beauty and behaves like a skulking little deer on water and fully deserves the names मज्जूल-दात्यूह, मुगूह-दात्यूह and जलरडकु-दात्यूह. The only other birds that can claim these names are the Jacanas but they are small birds, have no skulking habits, nor loud and powerful call-notes. It will be seen that the so-called substantives of the lexicons are really in the nature of descriptive epithets and the name दात्यूह principally means 'a noisy bird' and it is only the qualifying adjectives which make it specific for particular birds. 6. दात्यौह (v.1. दात्यूह ) is named in "दात्यौहो मासानाम्" वाज. संहिता (24.25 ) for the deity presiding over the Months, and in all probability it is the White-breasted Waterhen which is dark or black above and a clear white below, and mystically represents the dark and the light halves of the month. Support for this view comes from the afer. afar (5.5.17) where a tortoive is dedicated to the same deity- "मासां कश्यपः", and here too the back of the animal is dark-coloured and the belly a pale white so that दात्यौह is the same as the शुक्लकण्ठ दात्यूह. It is from this dedication that the bird has earned the naine मासज्ञ (knowing the month) as in the synonymy (iii), (i) above. 7. In "क्वयिः कुटरुः दात्यौहस्ते वाजिनाम्" –वाज संहिता, 24.29, again, it is the noisy White-breasted Waterhen with qafa the Screech Owl or the Common Owlet (Art. and कुटरु, the Green Barbet ( Art. 35), the last two being equally noisy birds. The alternative explanation of दात्यौह by Sayana on तैत्ति संहिता as 'पुष्करिणी बसति:' ('living on lotus-ponds') is perfectly true of this Waterhen. This selection is quite apt as the noise made by these birds is typical of the din and uproar attending horse races. The White-breasted Waterhen breeds during the rains when the males "become exceedingly •obstreperous" and their calls begin with "loud raucous grunts, croaks and chuckles suggestive of a bear in agony and settle down to a monotonous and metallic ku-wak...ku-wak or kook...kook...kook... On cloudy days this is often kept up for 15 minutes at a stretch, and calling continues more less throughout the night"-Salim Ali. EHA also remarks that "the clam- our which this little bird can raise is something astounding". मेघराव of चरक is clearly this bird but डल्हण has incorrectly rendered it as the चातक which however, is not a water-bird at all. 296 1. Probably also जलरब्ज दात्यूह, one that gives colour or charm to a tank. In the synonymy-- जलरन्ज:"-अभि. चिन्ता, दात्यूह has to be "दात्यूहे कालकष्टकः जलजलाack This (कालकण्टक), the Purple treated as a homonymi referring to the Moonhen (जलरङ्क), and the Hawk-cuckoo (जलरज्ज) क्षीरस्वामी or अमर, gives जलरज for चातक, and on 2.5.22 for दात्यूह Evidently जलरब्ज homonym or merely a descriptive epithet for more than one bird. As applied to the चातक 'जल' of जनरज means 'rain-water'. 2.5.17 also a 2. Cf. पक्षाभ्यां शुक्लकृष्णाभ्यां मासस्तु परिकल्पितः पद्मपुराण, क्रियाखण्ड, 22.56. Rails, Crakes, Moorhens, Watercocks and Coot 297 The above syllabification of the calls of the bird helps to identify the दात्यूह of the following verse: "प्रावृट्काले सुखी भूत्वा को वा कुल न गच्छति । इति वदति दात्यूहः को वा को वा क्व वा नव वा ॥" शब्दकल्पद्रुम It roosts and often places its nest on low trees in the vicinity of water and is also “often found some distance from water". The दात्यूह of भवभूति spending hot hours of day in the hollow of a tree appears to be this bird :- "दात्यू हैस्तिनिशस्य कोटरवति स्कन्धे निलीय स्थितम्" - मालतीमाधव, 9.7. This verse, perhaps, helps to solve the following synonymy in वैजयन्ती:-- "अथ शकटाविले प्लवपरिप्लवो अन्वर्थनामधेयौ ही जालपादाम्बुकुक्कुटी ।" that is, the name शकटाविल applies to two different birds viz. प्लव and परिप्लव (पारिप्लव) called respectively जालपाद (the Coot) and अम्बकुक्कुट (Rails and Waterhen). Now शकट is the तिनिश tree (Ougcinia dalbergioides usually a small tree yielding valuable wood used for various purposes including carts and hence its name शकट or स्वन्दनतर) and according to भवभूति, the White-breasted Waterhen occasionally does conceal itself (आविलति) in the hole (विस) of a शकट tree. One the शकटाविल birds, therefore, is this दात्यूह and the other in a hononymous sense of the term (शक्टाविल आविल confused, शकटब्यूह-mass formation or array, i.e, a bird moving in a confused mass ) is the Coot, the "प्लवा: संघातचारिणः" of चरक. 8. नरयूह in the following examples is जलकुक्कुट or दात्यूह according to the commentator and therefore, the present Waterhen :- "रथाह्लहसा नत्यूहाः प्लवाः कारण्डवाः परे । तथा पुंस्कोकिला: क्रौञ्चा विसंज्ञा मेजिरे दिशः ॥" रामायण, 2.103.43. "बुद्धपद्मोत्पलवनाचक्रवाकोपशोभिताः । नत्यूहरुतसंघुष्टा हंससारसनादिताः ||" रामायण, 15.14.25. The humble Waterhen and its smaller cousins have not been overlooked in the Epics: “सलिलकुक्कुटकारण्डवकलहंसादिभिविचित्रमुपकूजितामलजलाशय ....” भागवत, 5.4.2. "कारण्ड: सारसैहंसैर्वज्जुलैर्जलकुक्कुटैः । चक्रवाकंस्तथा चान्यैः शकुनैः प्रतिनादितान् ॥" रामायण, 4.13.8. "कादम्बैश्चक्रवाकै कुररैजलकुक्कुटैः ।" महाभारत, 3.158.56 1. Mahabharata III.146.44 is a similar verse probably taken over from the Rāma- yana. Here the प्लवा: are the Cormorants and कारण्डवाः the Coots.
