414 बार्हस्पत्य सुविहितो नायकेन विपश्चिता । नृत्यतीव महाव्यूहः परेषां भयमादधत् ॥ तस्य पक्षप्रपक्षेभ्यो निष्पतन्ति युयुत्सवः । हस्त्यश्वरथमातङ्गाः प्रावृषीव बलाहकाः ।। Birds in Sanskrit Literature MBh. 8.46.27-28 In this connection I would invite the reader's attention to Stuart Baker's description of the flight quoted in the foot-note to para 4 above. It is "in the form of a curved ribbon, the ends fluttering backwards and forwards as the birds, more specially those at the two extremes, alter their position." A comparison of this with the passage from the Mahabharata clearly shows that (i) नृत्यतीव refers to the fluttering movement; (ii) निष्पतन्ति युयुत्सवः to the change of places by the birds at the ends of the formation (); and (iii) the heavier elements of the army consisting of gear at the (141) rear and flanks look like the dark rain-clouds (aqua aeg:)". We thus have two kinds of a just as we have two types of formed after the flying formation and the body of the, the Common Crane (Art. 62 para. 2, f. n.). Both forms of rare bigger than the as the Flamingo (50") is larger than the Common Crane (45") and also occurs in larger masses. 10. We have seen in paragraph 6 that in later Sanskrit the Flamingo was known as बलाक and regarded as a kind of बक ("बलाकश्च बको मतः") and the following half verse from the ag recognizes its power of sifting out (i. e. eft which by means 'food' in the context) or minute semi-liquid food from water exactly as the ge is supposed to do: क्षीराणवः पयो दत्ते हंसाय न बकाय किम् ? - उत्तरखण्ड, Ch. 247. 160 The same Purāņa refers again to the Flamingo as living upon small water- organisms and rejecting other living things like frogs, fish, etc.: बको जलचरान् भुङक्त मण्डूकादींच वर्जयन् । — Ibid. 129.151 This naturally leads to a consideration of the bird or of the Hifigent where it is said to separate milk from water, and as explained in Art. 62, it is a bird with a long and flexible neck and the Flamingo as we have seen has the best claim to these names. If the faculty of separat- ing the whole of its minute food from water is literally true of any bird it is true of the Flamingo alone. The Swans, Geese and Ducks also do so 1. A similar picture is depicted in Mbh. 7.20.35, quoted in para. 14 below where white flags fluttering in the air and the chariots, elephants, horses, etc. carrying them have been compared with Flamingos and clouds. This close parallelism between the two passages helps to identitify the are also as modelled on a formation of Flamingos. 2. Does not a Lake give milk to the Flamingo as it does to a Swan? (ie. it certainly does give milk to the Flamingo as well. Flamingos 415 to some extent but the greater portion of their food consists of coarse stuff like green grass, water-weeds, crops, the larger mollusca, fish, etc. The and g (i.e. the sun pictured as the heavenly Swan) have been regard- ed as different birds in the following passages with reference to their power of separating site (liquid food) and (pure water) respectively from the impure natural waters: अद्भ्यः क्षीरं व्यपिबत् क्रुङाङ्गिरसो धिया' – VS 19.73. सोममद्भ्यो व्यपिबच्छन्दसा हंसः शुचिषत - VS 19.74. In the first verse is described as anf which may possibly mean two things: (i) af being an epithet of af the reference may be to the red. or flame colour in the plumage of the birds, the Flamingo; and (ii) resembling af and possessed of magical power (cf. t 'art, science, intelligence', in the text) enabling the to separate ofre from *. Perhaps both the ideas are involved. Similarly the term er (desire, will) in the second verse should refer to the wonderful power of the sun (the pure white Swan of the clear blue sky) who by his own free will or innate power sucks up (pure water) out of impure waters of the earth. A special capacity to extract some essential element out of the impure waters of the earth is thus common to both, viz., the earthly and the heavenly , one taking out fre and the other . Now if we examine some of the numerous Vedic equations or statements reflecting the diverse mental processes of the highly imaginative Indo-Aryans we will find that the term site stands for what to the is the essential part of the impure waters, viz., its food. The following equations are particularly interesting from the above viewpoint: (1) (2) ( 3 ) (4) (5) (6) ( 7 ) ( 8 ) सोमः पयः- शतपथ ब्राह्मण, 12.7.3.13. रसो वै पयः - Ibid 4.4.4.8. अन्तहितमिव वा एतद् यत्पयः- ताण्ड्य ब्राह्मण, 9.9.3. आपो वै क्षीररसा आसन्- Ibid. 13.4.8. आपो वै सूदो अन्नं दोहः- शत. ब्रा. 8.7.3.21 सोमो वै बाजपेयः -- तैत्तिरीय संहिता, 1.3.2.3. अन्नं वै सोमः - शत. ब्रा. 3.9.1.8. सर्वमेतदन्नं यद्धिमधुघृतम्- Ibid. 9.2.1.11. The first three of the above statements place milk and Soma juice on a Par as the two are drawn from the cow or the plant; regard them as the 1. Cr. "विद्वा पजहाति पापकं कोंचो खींपको व निषगम् ("उदान viii, 7. The कोंच of this Pali passage is evidently the "The wise man leaves the evil as the milk- drinking Flamingo the water'. C.R. Lanman's rendering of as 'Curlew' is incorrect, See his article, "The milk-drinking Hamsas of Sanskrit Poetry" in J.A.0.S. Vol 19., page 151,
