new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns

[Lars Martin Fosse]

There is an interesting booklet on the unicorn printed as the booklet for an
exhibition in the university library of Leiden in 2002: 

W. P. Gerritsen, De eenhorn en de geleerden. Het debat over het bestaan van
de eenhorn van de zestiende tot de negentiende eeuw.
Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, Leiden 2002. 

The booklet (86 pages including illustrations) gives a review of the
theories concerning the unicorn in the West from Antiquity to modern times. 

Recommended, if you can get hold of it.

Lars Martin


From:
Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
0674 Oslo - Norway
Phone: +47 22 32 12 19 Fax:  +47 850 21 250
Mobile phone: +47 90 91 91 45
E-mail: lmfosse at getmail.no


 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of 
> Alexandra Vandergeer
> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 12:47 PM
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns
> 
> Correct, I reached the same conclusion in a recent 
> publication: a bastard of a two-horned creature and a 
> zero-horned creature is one-horned, mathematically speaking. 
> Likely too much importance is given in the literature to this 
> rather innocent story. The unicorn myth seems to have still 
> an impact on modern people, including scholars.
>  
> Alexandra van der Geer
>  
> (the twisted horns Vajracharya shows to make the tool 
> resemble blackbuck horns extremely closely; blackbucks were 
> very common at the time)
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: Hans Henrich Hock [mailto:hhhock at illinois.edu]
> Sent: Mon 6-12-2010 18:04
> To: avandergeer at planet.nl
> Cc: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns
> 
> 
> 
> The problem is even deeper: None of the passages that 
> Vajracharya cites establish that there was a belief in a 
> one-horned gazelle; the only thing that can be established is 
> that the sage ?syas??ga had just one horn. In fact, if one 
> wanted to speculate, this could be attributed to the fact 
> that only one of his parents was a gazelle, the other one was human.
> 
> Hans Henrich Hock
> 
> 
> On 6 Dec 2010, at 09:26, Alexandra Vandergeer wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps I am a bad reader, but to me it is as if the author of 
> > Unicorns in Ancient India truly believes there existed once in the 
> > wild an artiodactyl animal with one horn only in South Asia. Since 
> > there is not the slightest hint whatsoever in the whole 
> article as to 
> > the taxonomy of this enigmatic creature, it is unclear whether the 
> > author presents his personal opinion or that of the Vedic 
> Indians (who 
> > might perhaps have believed indeed in such a ruminant).
> >
> > The only single-horned artiodactyl ungulates I am aware of roamed 
> > northern America during the Mio-Pliocene, such as Synthetoceras and 
> > family and the dromomerycids.
> >
> > Alexandra van der Geer
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > From: Indology on behalf of Michael Witzel
> > Sent: Sun 28-11-2010 5:44
> > To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> > Subject: [INDOLOGY] new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear List Members,
> >
> > we are happy to announce a new issue of the Electronic Journal of 
> > Vedic Studies:
> >
> > Vol.17 Issue 2, Nov. 29, 2010:
> >
> >
> > Gautama V. Vajracharya
> >
> > Unicorns in Ancient India and Vedic Ritual
> >
> >
> > It is available at: <http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/>
> > as quick download (compresssed pdf 1 MB) and as slower 
> download (11 MB 
> > pdf).
> >
> >
> > Issue 3 (Y. Vassilkov on Siberian rattle-mirrors with early Indian
> > motifs) to follow shortly.
> >
> >
> > Best,
> > MW
> >
> >
> > ============
> > Michael Witzel
> > witzel at fas.harvard.edu
> > <www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>
> >
> > Dept. of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
> > 1 Bow Street,
> > Cambridge MA 02138, USA
> >
> > phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295, 496 8570, fax 617 - 496 8571; my direct 
> > line:  617- 496 2990