Birds in Sanskrit Literature during the breeding season. The legs are pink, the eyes red, and the bill of a greenish colour. The Sarus is "always to be found in pairs usually accompanied by the last hatched young" and hence the Sanskrit name or adnoun मिथुनिन् मंथुनी for "They are most affectionate birds, pairing for life, and if one is killed the grief of the other is quite distressing" (S. Baker). Salim Ali, an authority on Indian bird-life and a keen observer, remarks that the devotion of a pair of Sarus to each other has earned them a degree of popular sentiment amounting to sanctity, and if one of a pair is killed the survivor haunts the scene of outrage for weeks calling distractedly, and has been known to pine away to death. Emperor Jehangir also relates in his Memoirs a most pathetic and touching example of a Sarus sitting continuously and without food upon the bones of its mate so much so that when the dying bird was lifted up its breast was found to have been eaten into by worms and maggots. It was such knowledge o the Sarus that made reftfs lose his temper with the fowler who killed. one of a pair of them. The reason why the exemplary conjugal devotion of Sarus has not received poetical recognition in Sanskrit literature, excepting the Rāmāyaṇa, is to be found in the that the similarly devoted couples (the Ruddy Sheldrake or Brahminy Duck, Art. 84 C) would seem to have gripped the imagination of the Indo-Aryans from the Vedic times as both the Rgveda and the Atharva-Veda mention. them in couples. It is therefore more than probable that the Indo- Aryans were already familiar with them before they got to know the Sarus whose habitat does not extend beyond the Indus.* 9. The Sarus Cranes are essentially birds of well watered open plains. and avoid hills, forest country and desert lands. Their flight is powerful but they rise slowly and seldom fly at any great height from the ground (Salim Ali). Like all Cranes they indulge in dancing. more so in the breeding season than t other times, which is much less graceful than their dignified quiet walk (S. Baker). The call is a fine trumpet uttered morn- ings and evenings, and if the pair happen to feed apart during the night they keep in touch by constantly calling to each other as the also do. They are much less gregarious than other Cranes and move from their favourite grounds in small flocks only if forced by drought or other cause and at such times they adopt the usual V-shaped flight. couples 10. Lexical adnouns for the Sarus are लक्ष्मण * *, रक्तमस्तक, मिथुनिन्, मणितारक, etc. for the male and These are self-explanatory but the name for the female Sarus call for a few remarks. as a bird-name is a homonym and belongs to (i) the Great Bustard who bellows like a bull (f- 316
- The Burmese Sarus is very similar to the Indian but is of a darker colour. Being
more of a forest-bird it flics much higher and is far moe shy than our Sarus. It occurs in Eastern Assam. The call, like that of his Indian cousin, is a beautiful trumpet-"a fine sound when it rings out in the early dawn of a clear Indian winter morning" (S. Baker). Its Assamese name is कुरसंग (कुरचंग ).
- one possessing a distinctive mark (), e.g. a red or white head
contrasting with the body colour; also handsome or beautiful-लक्ष्मण: श्री शोभायुते as in afa. farafor. Cranes 317 Art. 63), and (ii) the Bittern with a booming call in reed beds by the water-side (fifa-Art. 82). In the latter sense the name may well be applied to the Sarus as well but as the lexicons have no feminine form of and give instead for the female there is good reason to believe that the proper name or adnoun for the Sarus is गोनन्द and not गोनदं. Fortunately however the faulere mentions this name: "पुत्रप्रियांल्लोहपृष्ठान् गोनन्दगिरिवर्तकान्" – 1.151.44 The confusion between and is probably on a par with fre and fry for the fir tree (M. W.) and is due to a graphical error of copying from MSS in an older script. The correct names for the male and female Sarus should thus be and in the sense that a couple per- form their marital rites on the ground: गवि भूमौ जलाम्याशे वा सुरतानन्दो यस्य. ** 11. A few of the Sutras of Apastamba dealing with the question of particular birds permitted or not permitted as food are as below: “कुक्कुटो विकिराणाम्”– 1.5.17.32 "प्लव: प्रतुदाम्" - "क्रव्याद: "- » » » 33 » 34 "हंसभासचक्रवाकसुपर्णाश्च"-,,,,35 “क्रुश्चक्रौञ्चवार्धाणसलक्ष्मणवर्जम्” "" " 36 The last aphorism quoted above permits three categories of birds as food, viz., (a) the Flamingo, (b) the Common Crane, and (c) the Hornbill, but makes an exception in favour of , i.e. the Sarus Crane. Both Hara- datta in his and Dr. Bühler in his translation (S. B. E. Vol. 2, 64-65) have missed something in explaining this particular aphorism. a fore being an unknown thing to both, they have treated it simply as an adjective of and translated the compoud literally as the "leather- nosed Lakshmana" thus creating a non-existent curiosity, 'a leather-nosed Sarus'. For as the Hornbill see Art. 42 and for, the Flamingo, Art. 83. As regards the correct interpretation of the itself it will be noted that Sütras Nos. 32 and 33 permit the whole of the fafer and g classes of birds as food subject to only one exception in each case. Sūtras 34 and 35 are entirely prohibitory while No. 36, as suggested by Bühler and Hara-
- Lexicons do not give the masculine form of tft.
- Suhstituted for 'गवि जले नन्दतीति' of शब्दकल्पद्रम. It will be noticed that my ex
planation of the term is based on the quotation from the Ramayana given in para. 5.
