snake & mongoose in ancient India

[Rajarshi Banerjee]

>* 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!

>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.

A common aquatic, mongoose like, brown, furry animal would be an otter.
Otters are far more widespread in India and Iran. The ancients were not
always accurate when it came to describing animals. For e.g. ground
burrowing marmots in north west india/afghanistan... were mistakenly called
gold digging ants by herodotus.

Distinctive features of beavers are dam building and large flat tails. Are
these referred to in the avesta? If not then all that can be inferred is a
furry aquatic creature.

regards RB