428 Birds in Sanskrit Literature. Swan as मल्लिकास्य or पाकहंस. This राजहंस being a very rare bind even in the Himalayas has naturally been left severely alone and does not figure in the Jataka stories. The title of the gre, which deals principally with the two varieties of Swan, the go and the g, and their young, shows that these Swans went by the common name of महाहंस. पालकाप्य, ch. 26, however, mentions are and ¹ in juxtaposition, and if one reads the two words as a single name it would mean the type of Swan' but as two different names they would refer to the Whooper and the Mute Swan respectively. That they are not the Geese is clear from the fact that the latter are named in the same passage as (Grey Lag). The presence of arger on the gg is mentioned in the पद्मपुराण :-- सर्वतो भद्रतां प्राप्तो महाहंस प्रशोभते । - भूमिखण्ड, 101.27.2 (Bar-head) and ge lake in the Himalayas It must be noted that were does not include the much smaller Cygnus davidii which is the राजहंस of अमरकोश whose author was a Buddhist. 5. Apart from the Geese, original sense of an all-white Swan), and, the lexicons give ga (in the (white-winged, a Swan alone has white wing quills), f(white plumaged), etc. as common names for a Swan and mention three different kinds of it, viz., राजहंस, धार्तराष्ट्र and मस्तिकाव्य :-- हंसास्तु वंतगरुचकाङ्क्षा मानसौकसः, राजहंसास्तु ते चञ्चुचरणैर्लोहितः सिताः, मलिनैर्मल्लिकाख्यास्ते, धार्तराष्ट्रा सितेतरी:- अमर.; अभि. चिन्ता. हंसो श्वेतः धार्तराष्ट्री, राजहंसो मनोरम:- धन्वन्तरि हंसो मरालो नीलाक्षः चक्रपक्षः सितच्छदः मानसौकाः परिप्लावी वक्रानो जालपादक:– वैजयन्ती. हंसेषु तु मरालाः स्युः – अभि. चिन्ता. मरातो धूसरच्छदः. . . अभव्यः स च हंसः स्यात् – कल्पद्रुकोश कालेषु तेषु (i.c. चञ्चुचरणेषु ) धवलः किल धार्तराष्ट्र: सोऽप्येष धूसरतनुस्तु भवेदभव्यः– राजनिघण्टु. चक्राङ्गः सारसो हंसे- शब्दार्णव cited by मल्लिनाथ on शि. वध, 12.44. हरिः, हरिणः हंसः- शब्दकल्पद्रुम मल्लिकाक्ष in some editions of अमर and in अभि. चिन्ता is a mistake for मल्लिकाव्य, for मल्लिक is हंसभेद both according to हेमचन्द्र and विश्वप्रकाश मल्लिकाक्ष proper is the Duck known as the White-eyed Pochard and this explains the error. Brief notes on some names and epithets in the above quotations are added. below : 1. Cf. as fa (M.W.), the Sun, can only be a Swan. 2. The कलशब्द महाहंस of मार्कण्डेय पुराण 1.11 is the Whooper Swan, Swans, Geese, Ducks and Mergansers 429 and (M. Williams)-refer to the circular or spiral flight of the birds as they survey their landing ground or water, and also to the vigorous rotary motion of their wings preparatory to settling down. -All the Swans and Geese come across the Himalayas and as the Bar-headed Geese were known to have their breeding grounds at the Himalayan lakes including the the Swans also have been placed there and the name merely signifies their northern home across the Himalayas; cf. देवलोकोद्भव' and सुरप्रिय as epithets for a Swan. मराल — is a Swan according to वैजयन्ती and अभि. चिन्ता but with a grey- brown plumage as defined in कल्पद्रुकोश As for the age (one that is not beautiful, i.e., is not white) f makes it clear that the uri (the Whooper) when in the brown phase known by that name. It follows, therefore, that and a denote young Swans that have not yet assumed the white plumage of the adult. कल्पद्रुकोश supports this when it says, "अभव्यः स च हंसः स्यात्". frem having black or dark-brown eyes' should be the Mute Swan which has the darkest eyes of all. sf-whose food is milk' after the supposed power of a Swan to separate milk from water. ef also means 'clean or pure water and the name may well have been transferred back to it after the Sun had been pictured as a Swan in the blue sky. The Sun sucks up pure water out of the impure waters of the earth and this power of the heavenly Swan came later to be attributed to the earthly Swan. It is more probable, however, that the power of the bird (the Flamingo, and not the Curlew) of separating milk (very fine food) from the water came later to be transferred to the - see Art. 83, and Prof. C.R. Lanman's article, "The Milk-drinking Hansas of Sanskrit Poetry" in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 19, p. 151ff. (1898). वा (Pali वक्कगो) and सङ्कचित (वैजयन्ती) are after the long flexible neck of a Swan. afrit-refers to the permanent association of a Swan with the water and its swimming habit as against a Goose which is more of land than a water-bird. ft)-the largest', 'the migratory' and 'flying ' corresponds to 'g'. fer and (in in formation' respectively. -has red bill and feet according to a but the colour is bright red (अतिलहित) according to अभि. चिन्ता. It is particularly to be noted that धन्वन्तरि older than , makes no mention of red bill and feet.
- fe-- 'soiled, tarnished, or of a dark colour.'
1. देवलोक is evidently the देवक्षेत्र or उत्तरकुरू the vaguely known or conjectur- ed areas including central Asia, Tibet, i.e. lying beyond and to the North of the Himalayas (ऐतरेय आरण्यक, 8.23), The description of Swans as coming from t is thus fairly correct though later they came to be placed with the Geese at, and in the neighbour- hood of, the Lake in the Himalayas.
