snake & mongoose in ancient India

Wed Apr 12 10:09:20 UTC 2000

At the AOS meeting in Baltimore (1999), Joshua Katz gave a paper on "How the
Mole Got his Name" [which probably has been published by now somewhere; does
anyone have his email address?], in which he dealt primarily with the word
aakh;u-, but also with other animal names like kaa;siik;aa- and your
nakul;a-.
    Reading his handout, I see that he emphasizes that we are dealing indeed
with Mongooses, NOT ichneumons. As for mongooses in India, he says that "we
find a number of kinds of mongoose (the word mongoose [and other spellings;
cf. Germ. Mungo] is a borrowing from Dravidian), including two species in
the north: Herpestes edwardsi (Common or Indian Grey Mongoose) and Herpestes
auropunctatus (Golden or Small Indian Mongoose). Katz refers to:

- Encyclopedia of Indian natural History 97; R.F. Ewer, The Carnivores
(Ithaca, NY 1973), 402f.; Walker's Mammals of the World (II.), 1043f.

He further refers to "hari.n;a-" as a name for Mongoose, with ref. to SW
Jamison, "The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun", 59-61 and 87f (with ref.
to MS 3.9.3 tasmaad dhari.nam svaja.m khaadati). He adds many more
interesting bits of information, which I won't quote anymore, as they have
probably appeared in print somewhere already.
    From Vedic literature (thus, excluding the at least one hundred passages
where the nakula- is mentioned in Mahaabhaarata and Raamaayana, as well as
interesting passages from Dharma texts, Kau.tilya and Vaagbha.t.ta), I find
in my database the following (selected) interesting passages:

AVS (6.139.5.a) yathaa nakulo vichidya sa.mdadhaaty ahi.m puna.h |
AVS (8.7.23.a) (= AVP 16.14.2b) varaaho veda viirudha.m nakulo veda
bhe.sajiim |
AVP (1.44.3.cd) trayas tudaa rujaamasi babhruvo nakulas tvat ||
AVP (1.44.4.ab) trayo vai sma.h sakhaayo babhruvo nakulas tvat |
AVP (1.87.4.d) +vi cchetsyaami nakula iva sarpam ||
Baudh;SS (27.9:333.4) atha havirdo.saan vyaakhyaasyaamo yathaitan
niilamak.sikaa;saatikaa matku.na;s caila;sirasor yuuke kii.to vaa
pi.n.dakaarii syaat k.sudrakii.tamak.sikaapipiilikaavarja;m
;svamaarjaaranakulakukku.tamarka.tadhvaa:nk.saakhupurii.sasikpadake;sam.rtan
akhakunakhapuutidrapsasvedaas.rksnehaa;srukaasak.savathvaardraghra.nair
vopahatam anyair vopahata;m rajasvalayaa vaa sp.r.s.ta.m tathaaprayatena
bhruu.naghnena vaa

Baudh;SS (18.45:398.6) < ta;m saa nakulii bhuutvaa pratyupeyaaya >

ManBr (1.7.15) o.s.thaapidhaanaa nakulii dantaparimita.h pavi.h /
     jihve maa jihvalo vaaca.m caaru maadyeha vaadaya //
This mantra is used at GobhGS 3.4.29  upopavi;sya mukhyaan praa.naan
sa.mm.r;sann o.s.thaapidhaanaa nakulii 'ti

TS (5.5.12.1) aara.nyo 'jo nakula.h ;sakaa te pau.s.naas |
TS (5.5.21.1) si;mho nakulo vyaaghras te mahendraaya
TS (5.6.15.1) saumyaas traya.h ;sviti.mgaa agnaye yavi.s.thaaya trayo
nakulaas
TS (7.3.18.1) nakulaaya svaahaa
VSM 24.26  bhuumyaa aakhuun aa labhate 'ntarik.saaya paa:nktraan dive
ka;saan digbhyo nakulaan babhrukaan avaantaradi;saabhya.h //
VSM 24.32  somaaya kulu:nga aara.nyo 'jo nakula.h ;sakaa te pau.s.naa.h
kro.s.taa maayor indrasya gauram.rga.h pidvo nya:nku.h kakka.tas te
'numatyai prati;srutkaayai cakravaaka.h //

I hope this helps. please check in the Mahaabhaarata yourself, because it
seems to be full of interesting passages.

-- Arlo Griffiths

CNWS / Instituut Kern
Universiteit Leiden
Postbus 9515
2300 RA  Leiden
the Netherlands

tel.: +31-71-5272979

----------
>From: Birgit Kellner <birgit.kellner at UNIVIE.AC.AT>
>To: INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK
>Subject: snake & mongoose in ancient India
>Date: woe, 12 apr 2000 11:10 AM
>

> Dear list-members,
>
> I am looking for further information about how the relation between
> snakes and mongoose was conceived of by ancient Indian writers, as well
> as perhaps - though this is not strictly speaking "INDOLOGY-stuff" - the
> distribution of mongoose in (ancient) India.
> My starting-point is the famous list of seven inferential connections,
> attested for the ancient SAMkhya treatise "SaSTitantra", which features
> a "relation between killer and killed" (vadhyaghAtakabhAva), said to
> obtain between a snake and a mongoose. To the best of my knowledge, it
> is not specified in older sources what an inference based on such a
> relation might look like. Much later sources (VAcaspatimizra's
> NyAyavArttikatAtparyaTIkA or Udayana's KiraNAvalI) seem to assume that
> when a snake (ahi) emits a certain sound (visphUrjanazabda - a hissing
> sound?), one infers that a mongoose (nakula) is present in proximity. I
> would interpret this as indicating that this particular sound of a snake
> is caused by the presence of the mongoose as its enemy.
> It is obvious that snake and mongoose were thought of as mutual enemies,
> though the few available descriptions that provide more details on the
> consequences of their mutual hostility vary: In a passage in the
> NyAyavArttikatAtparyaTIkA, the snake (sarpa) is described as
> "victorious" (jaya) and the mongoose (nakula) as the one who is defeated
> (parAjaya); in a much earlier passage in DignAga's
> PramANasamuccayavRtti, the snake (*ahi) is described as defeated and the
> mongoose (*nakula) as victorious.
> From my little knowledge about mongoose, the latter strikes me as more
> plausible, since mongoose are known to attack and kill certain kinds of
> poisonous snakes, for instance cobras. I am wondering however whether
> the behaviour of the different subspecies of mongoose (herpestidae) that
> were, or are, at home on the Indian sub-continent varies significantly
> in this respect.
>
> Thus my questions:
> (1) Does anyone know of further passages in ancient Sanskrit literature
> - by which I don't mean exclusively philosophical literature - which
> shed more light on how the relation between snake and mongoose was
> understood?
> (2) Is anything known about the distribution of different kinds of
> mongoose on the Indian sub-continent, esp. significant changes during
> and since the first millenium C.E., and whether they differ at all
> regarding their behaviour towards snakes?
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated,
>
> Birgit Kellner
> Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies
> Vienna University