hamsa

[Julia Leslie]

As Dominik has pointed out, I am working on something else right
now, but hope to return to the hamsa in the not too distant future.

Those who are interested in my remarks the last time this topic
appeared on the list could check the archive for earlier this year.

And thank you to Joanna Kirkpatrick for her bibliographical
suggestion. I'd be delighted to receive any other snippets of
information in relation to both the hamsa and birds in Sanskrit
literature generally, either on or off the list.

Julia

Dr I J Leslie
SOAS

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

On 11 Oct 02, at 0:00, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> I'm sure Julia Leslie will comment herself, but she has done research in
> the last year which satisfies me that Vogel was wrong, mainly because he
> based his judgement too exclusively on S. Indian architectural images of
> birds.
>
> The standard view we Indologists have all held for decades, that hamsa is
> the grey goose, is no longer tenable.  Sometimes it's indeed a goose,
> sometimes (quite often) it's really a swan.
>
> I sincerely hope Julia will complete and publish her work soon, since the
> issue comes up often.  However, she is on a research fellowship at present
> for other work, so I fear we'll have to wait.
>
> Dominik
>
> On Thu, 10 Oct 2002, Alex Passi wrote:
>
> > Here's a delightful classic title - the author had an "omen-nomen":
> > Vogel, Jean Philippe, (1871-1951). The goose in Indian literature and
> > art. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1962. vi, 74 p. 12 plates. 28 cm. Vogel points
> > out that the swan as such is not native to India. The haMsa is - of
> > course - a goose. Cheers, Alex
> >
>
> --
> Dominik Wujastyk
>