snake & mongoose in ancient India

[Paul Kekai Manansala]

birgit kellner wrote:
>

>
> (2) Regarding zoological issues: Is it probable that inhabitants of the Indian> subcontinent generally witnessed, during the first millenium C.E., that> mongoose of some subspecies or another attacked and killed snakes (of some> subspecies or another)?

The early portions of the Rgveda show knowledge of the relationship
between the mongoose and the snake. Here are a few lines from Dr.
Kalyanaraman's site:

1.191.15 May the insignificant mongoose (carry off) your venom,
      (Poison); if not, I will crush the vile (creature) with a
stone;        so may the poison depart (from my body) and go to distant
regions.

      [The mongoose: kus.umbako nakulah, the mongoose, whose
hostility        to the snake is proverbial].

1.191.16 Hastening forth at the command (of Agastya), thus spoke the
      mongoose: the venom of the scorpion is innocuous; scorpion, your
      venom is innocuous.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala

--
Check out http://AsiaPacificUniverse.com/