Snakes

[Birgit Kellner]

Dominik Wujastyk wrote:

> The Susrutasamhita treats of poisonous snakes in Kalpasthaana IV.  The
> classification is into either five types or three types (oh, well :): the
> 3-fold class is just the first 3 of the 5-fold.


Incidentally, is anyone aware of snakes being described with the
attribute "visphUrjat"? This occurs in examples for a specific kind of
inference in logical treatises - from observing a snake which is
"visphUrjat", one infers the presence of the mongoose, its arch-enemy,
behind the bushes. Some texts suggest "visphUrjat" is a noise (hissing?
growling?), but I've never found out what it really means, and what kind
of snake this could be (the snake is just referred to as "ahi"). Some
modern translators render it as "agitated, angry".

Best regards,

Birgit