78 Birds in Sanskrit Literature bird that utters a triple ft note from a mango tree, and in this sense it is fully parallel to अंबक मद्दी. 12. The Indian Orioles are local migrants, and finding the winter of the Punjab and the Uttar Pradesh too severe, disappear from these areas in October. The Black-headed variety continues to live U. P. but it is silent during the winter bird Calendar for India-Douglas Dewar). "With the ripening of the mangoes in spring the Indian Oriole arrives in Northern India. To that circumstance, combined with the greens and yellows of the two sexes to the fruit and leaves of their favourite tree, is due the popular Anglo-Indian name of Mango-bird" (Whistler). A bird of entirely arboreal habits, the Oriole naturally takes to the dense foliage of mango trees and sings its melodious notes from there and hence the ancient names of and safe for it. I need hardly add that this association of the bird with the mango tree is not a recent Anglo-Indian discovery but was a well known fact in North India and Ceylon more than two thousand years ago, and it is highly probable that the Anglo-Indians got the name from South India or Ceylon. For the still unsolved bird-names in the Edict of Asoka see Art. 37-B for er, and Art. 84 for असुन and नन्दीमुख. 13. We may now take up the bird the Ramayana and the question of the confusion caused by the similarity of the name fr with frf (an ant). The later scribes of the grand the authors of हरिवंत, मत्स्यपुराण and पद्मपुराण, having missed the identity of पिपीलक (fem. पिपीलका) as a bird, changed the spelling to पिपीलिक (fem. पिपीलिका). The authors of the above Purăņas also recast the story of the pair of birds hinted at in the Rāmāyaṇa into one of a pair of ants! The earliest version of a king occurs in a brief reference to the father of queen Kaikeyi in the Rāmāyaṇa:- “सर्वभूतरुतं तस्मात् संजज्ञे वसुधाधिपः तेनं तियंग्गतानां च भूतानां विदितं वचः ॥ ततो जृम्भस्य शयने विस्ताद् भूरिवर्चसः पितुस्ते विदितो भावः स तव बहुधाऽसत् ॥" 2.35, 19-20. जृम्भ (having a far-reaching voice; cf. "सुखश्रवाः मङ्गलतूनिस्वनाः व्यजृम्भन्त" रघुवंश 3.19) has been rendered differently by the commentators: (i) पिपीलिका fr, a kind of ant, by Govindaraja apparently misled by the later version of the story in the Purānas and हरिवंश, and (ii) जृम्भकाव्य पक्षी by Rāma in his frer commentary (Bombay Edn.) and he explains fi as , of a golden colour. The use of the expression freare makes it clear that had an audible call, and this together with the fact that it belonged to the class of birds or beasts (fl) at once puts out of court the suggestion that it was an ant, for ants have no voice at all and belong to the org class. Moreover, no lexicon gives for an ant. Nevertheless the interpretation of as fifa (masc. fff) is particularly significant in view of what the terms fife and Orioles 79 Prakrit ff are now found to mean, viz., the Golden Oriole. It follows that the oldest synonym of was the f bird. Poet has spelt the masc. and fem. forms of the word correctly as already stated above but others mistaking them for ants proceeded to embroider the old story with minute details of a love quarrel between a pair of sugar-loving ants. This later version is found in ब्रह्मदत्तचरितम् in हरिवंश, 1.24 where the female is described as 'an angry little ant' (yar your frtfest), and in the gr, ch. 20 where the pair becomes and the female is:- "सुवर्णवर्णा सुश्रोणी मज्जूका चारुहासिनी सुलक्ष्यनेतरसना गुडशकंरवत्सला ।” The पद्मपुराण also has a similar story about king विक्रान्त in सृष्टिखण्ड ch. 10. 14. In the following verse from the Mahabharata frf: is clearly a mistake for fasteren: :- "फलं वा मूलकं हृत्वा अपूपं वा पिपीलिकाः”.... 13.111, 100. Here the unnecessary plural is worth noting. had the correct reading before him and he gives fr: (singular). They also has the correct spelling पूपं हत्वा पिपीलक" (see शब्दकल्पद्रुम under कर्मविपाक ). The name, as suggested above is probably after the bird's call-notes but in view of the fact that its other names like and are based on the golden colour of its plumage, it is quite likely that frifers for 'a kind of gold' has something to do with the change of spelling from fr to पिपीलिक (cf. Prakrit पिपीलिय) and this in turn helped the sordid ant to displace the glorious Oriole in the later forms of the original story. पिलग or पिलक in अर्धमागधी and पीलक in Hindi are the direct descendants of पिपलक with one of first two letters cut out, and the apparent affinity of the surviving form with Hindi for 'Yellow' would seem to be accidental. 15. The Orioles are mentioned in Purâņa literature under the names, काञ्चन, चामीकर, and सुग्रीव काञ्चन in reference to their golden yellow or maroon-red plumage. Of these the first two are for the Golden Oriole and the third for the Black-headed (also black-necked) Oriole and the black-headed Maroon Oriole of the Himalayas and the adjoining plains. The epithet refers to their black throat and neck in the same way god far (of the black throat, because of the poison stored in it) bears the same name. Dried lac of a reddish-brown colour is described as ff in AV 5.5, 6 and the dark brown Golden Eagle is f (Art. 52-A) so that the Maroon Oriole also very properly shares the name with his brother the Black-headed (yellow) Oriole. Ta is one of the birds at a hermitage in पद्मपुराण:- 1. Cf. also काञ्चनी-हरिद्राकारकम् the red ochre and काञ्चनार Bauhionia Variegata with pink and purple flowers.
