snake & mongoose in ancient India

[Michael Witzel]

K.Elst:
>I vaguely recall reading (forgetting where) that in the Avesta,
>the beaver is mentioned as a modestly sacred animal, and that this is
>strange as in its Afghan/Uzbek heartland, no beavers occur.  I was wondering
>if by the same name, the mongoose could be meant: as a snake-biter, it is a
>miniature dragon-slayer.

Unfortunately, the Avesta is clear enough:

* Yasht 5.129 speaks of beaver dresses made up of 300  beavers (skins)
(Any mongoose dresses anywhere?)

bawri < *babhri < *bhabhr-, cf. Skt. babhru 'brown', Engl. beaver from the
same root, in short : one of the several old IE animal names derived from
IE *bhebhru "brown" such as O.Engl. bebr, beofor,  Lat. fiber, Lith.,
bebrus, Russ. bobr , all: 'beaver',  etc.]

* Yt 5.129 is even  clearer:  "the female beaver is most beautiful, as it
is most furry: the beaver is a water animal"   (yaT asti bawriS sraESta
yatha yaT asti gaonO.t at ma, bawriS bauuaiti upApO)
Note that the Avest. text already has to give an explanatory note!

This is from the description of the Iranian "Sarasvati", the  water (etc. )
Goddess Aredvi Sura Anahita.

The mongoose is not a water animal (upApa-).
(Today, it occurs in Greater Iran only in its SE corner, in Baluchistan)

But, beavers occur *even now* in Central Asia, as a look in Grzimek's
encyclopedia will show.
And may very well have been more prominent in prehistoric, still  more
wooded Afghanistan, (see Alexander's campaigns),  along its "swiftly
running rivers, with their many floods" as the Avesta says.

So, 'no out of India' : mongoose > beaver, not even in the very closely
related Iranian;
rather IE  "brown"/ "beaver" > Indian babhru

===============

Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138

ph. 617-496 2990 (also messages)
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