gold-digging ants

[Luis Gonzalez-Reimann]

At 01:20 AM 11/26/96 GMT, Dadhav Deshpande wrote:
>Dear Indology Members,
>	I would like to draw your attention to a fascinating article by
>Marlise Simons in today's New York Times (Nov 25, 1996, page A7).  It is
>titled:
>	"Himalayas offer clue to legend of gold-digging ants"
>
>	All the best,
>			Madhav Deshpande


Very interesting. I read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle, and I
have a question.
The suggestion of the article is that the "ants" were really marmots, and
Michel Peissel "says that his favored explanation is that confusion set in
because in Persian the word for marmot is equivalent to mountain ant."
Could anyone tell us what this Persian word is, and its etymology?  Is there
a Sanskrit word for marmot?

Sincerely,

Luis Gonzalez-Reimann
University of California, Berkeley