Hamsa

[Bindu Bhat]

Hamsa is Anser Indicus (bar-headed goose). Their nesting areas are in the 
Mountainous regions of central Asia north of the Himalayas. (No wonder they 
want to be in Mansarovara). They come to northern India and Myanmar during 
winter. They have light grey body, white head with two black bars on the 
back of the head. Depending on the context Hamsa can mean God, Brahma, 
Vishnu, Shiva, Soul, vital air, and individual soul. Used as Paramahamsa, 
it means ascetic of the highest order. It is depicted as a beautiful bird 
in poetry and beautiful women's graceful slow walk is equated to that of 
Hamsa. It is the vehicle of Brahma.
Bindu


--On 27 ??????? 2005 17:44 -0600 jkirk <jkirk at SPRO.NET> wrote:

> Not only that, but parallel to the idea that a beautiful woman has the
> gait of a hamsa (swan or whatever you want), in the Kama Sutra is says
> the beautiful woman has the gait of an elephant. Perhaps we today do not
> appraise such gaits as beautiful or charming, but some ancients did. Both
> goose and elephant are real creatures, not fantastic animals, and I find
> it a stretch to assume that the hamsa in some classic texts is meant to
> be a mythical animal. Instead it's a poetic figure, and if it lives in
> ponds of golden lotuses and has mystical cries, and longs for Lake
> Manasarovar, so what? That's poetry.
> Joanna Kikrpatrick
> =================================
>
>
>
>>  Hamsa all over again!?
>>
>> Fortunately, I had the hamsa pictures left up on the web
>>
>> http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/Hamsa/hamsa%20index.html
>>
>> As one can easily see the early sculptors certainly intended to  portray
>> a  goose
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>> John C. Huntington
>>     (Buddhist Art and Methodologies)
>> The Ohio State University
> ===================
>>>>
>>>> A hamsa is neither a swam or a duck but a mythic bird.
>>>>
>>>> Regards.
>>>>
>>>> Harsha
>>>> Prof. Harsha V. Dehejia
>>>> Ottawa, ON. Canada