at risk again

[jkirk]

Intriguing! what got me started on this were the many terms in Kalidasa's
Meghaduta for birds and flowers. Probably nobody has gone through it to see
if they could write a "nature concordance' for that work?
=============
> Dear Colleagues,
> be always very careful with Monier Williams' identifications of animals
> and plants and especially with the names he used. These were often badly
> antiquated even when he compiled his dictionary in the 19th century and
> sometimes quite much taxonomic knowledge is needed to understand his
meaning.
>
> There is no easy available reliable source, the information is scattered
> in many places and often unavailable. Dave's books on birds in Sanskrit
> is nice as a material collection, but his way of equating Sanskrit words
> with zoological taxons is often erroneous.
>
> For Vedas Macdonell's and Keith's index contains sometimes useful
> information and textual references. Mayrhofer's dictionaries are also
> useful. But the whole thing is often difficult and needs special study.
>
> Regards
> Klaus
>
> --
> Klaus Karttunen, Ph.D.
> Docent of Indology and Classical Ethnography
> Institute of Asian and African Studies
> PL 59 (Unioninkatu 38 B), 00014 University of Helsinki, FINLAND
> phone 358-0-19122188, fax 358-0-19122094
>
>