lion - "five-faced"

[Ashok Aklujkar]

There has been some interesting discussion on pa;ncaanana in Marathi between
Professors M.A. Mehendale and M.G. Dhadphale. I cannot locate it at present,
nor remember its precise content. The inquirer could contact both scholars
at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune 411 004.

In the meanwhile, I will simply observe that pa;nca could be connected to
the root pa;nc that is found in words such as prapa;nca and must have some
such sense as 'expand, proliferate.'

ashok aklujkar


On 2003-01-10 06:13, "Madhav Deshpande" <mmdesh at UMICH.EDU> wrote:

> V.S.Apte's dictionary explains paJcaanana referring to a lion as paJcam
> aananam yasya, "so called because its mouth is generally wide-open."  It also
> lists paJca in the sense of "spread, extended," though the only cited
> instances of this word are in compounds like paJcaanana.
> 
>                                               Madhav Deshpande
> 
>> ----------
>> From:         Eva De Clercq
>> Reply To:     Indology
>> Sent:         Friday, January 10, 2003 8:28 AM
>> To:   INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
>> Subject:           lion - "five-faced"
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> Do any of you have any references to why a lion is often called "five-
>> faced", paJcànana?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> Eva De Clercq
>> 
>>