13 MINIVETS 1. The Minivets are small Sparrow-like birds (6"-9")with comparatively long tails and of colourful plumage with red or yellow conspicuous in most cases. Some have glistening black and scarlet as part of their dress. They are usually met with in parties and keep to tree-tops where they search for their insect food in the foliage. Constantly uttering their soft cheeping notes, a party keeps together flitting from tree to tree "in follow-my-leader- fashion". This trait has given them the pretty names of or girl friends) and #art (the seven girl friends or sporting girls) in Bengali. (little 2. Hymn 191 of the first Mandala of the Rgveda is a charm against the poison of snakes, scorpions, insects etc. where wf (verse 11), विष्णुलिङ्गक (verse 12), and मयूरी with सप्तस्वसार: (verse 14 ) are invoked for protection or cure. wgfar and are of course birds but some translators have not accepted Sayana's suggestion that fagfe also is a particular bird, while has been rendered as the 'seven rays of the sun' or 'seven rivers' of the Punjab. 3. The numbers 'three', 'seven' and 'three times seven' are evidently supposed to have some magical significance and have been greatly in favour with ancient peoples, but in the present context they appear to have, in addition, a somewhat real, though necessarily vague, reference to actual numbers as well. 1. 11.42 and 43. 2. No. 4. 4. Sayaņa has explained wyf as a ft which may mean either the female Grey Partridge (fs) or more probably a Quail (cf. "वर्तीरोऽल्पकपिजलः"कल्पदुकांश ). In RVi as also in खिलसूक्त the कपिल has been called a w or which would justify Sayana's inter- pretation, but the diminutive form "fr" seems to point to a smaller bird of the Partridge kind. However that may be, I must refer to a treatment for snake-bite sometimes practised in the Indian villages with the help of a fowl. The open (i.e. forced open) cloaca of a live chicken is pressed on the site of a bite and the poison is supposed to be sucked up Minivets 59 by the gradually closing organ of the bird, and a similar treatment with Quail or Partridge in place of the chicken would seem to be indicated in verse 11 of the hymn. This is merely by the way and has nothing to do with the Minivets. 5. The free of verse 12 is, according to Sayana, a kind of bird but has been translated too literally as "sparks of fire" by Griffith. I consider Sayana's hint of a bird to be correct, and most probably it is the Scarlet Minivet or its smaller cousin, the Short-billed Minivet. In both. the head and the upper parts are glossy black, and the lower parts, rump, most of the tail and a bar on the wing bright scarlet. They are entirely arboreal and move from tree to tree in flocks which sometimes number as many as thirty to forty birds. "Feeding in the trees or flitting one by one across a patch of open the scarlet and black of the males and the yellow of the females is so conspicuous and so attractive in the sun-light" that not much of imagination is required to compare the picture with a series of scintillating sparks of fire, and who will say that the name fagfer is inappropriate for them? During the great fire in the forest the flying sparks are described by क्षेमेन्द्र :- "स्फुलिङ्गनिचया बलेविचेरुस्तरलत्विषः" (भारतमञ्जरी ) । and need one be surprised at the Scarlet Minivet being named frefer? 6. These birds kill and eat various kinds of insects that haunt the trees. and were naturally supposed to enjoy immunity against insect poison. The idea is somewhat analogous to the virtue attributed to goat's milk as a protection against injury because the animal eats all kinds of herbs:- ग्रजा ह सर्वा श्रोषधीरत्ति सर्वासामेवैता--- मेतदोषधीनां रसेनाऽऽच्छृणत्ति । (शत. ब्राह्मण ) s Jerdon named this Minivet 'the Fiery Red Bird' which happens to be a very good rendering of the Vedic name. The very ancient practice of burning the site of injury by any poisonous agency with a live charcoal could also suggest these Minivets which resemble in a way a piece of half-glowing charcoal, partly black and partly bright red. 7. The Peahens, as snake-eaters, certainly deserve a place in the hymn but what are the rear the Seven Sisters? Are they too not some kind of bird? The Rosy and Small Minivets, moving as they do in small parties of six or seven are known in Bengal as art (the seven companion birds) and art or et in Hindi, and as their habits are similar to those of the Scarlet Minivets the reference may well be to them. The fact, however, that they come along with ground-birds like the Peahens makes for their identity with birds of the Jungle or Common Babbler type which kill and eat lizards, frogs, spiders, etc., and hunt for centipedes and insects in the grass and under-growth in semi-open jungle 1. आदिपर्व 1369. 2. 6.5.4.16.
