new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns

[Alexandra Vandergeer]

As far as I understood from Karel van Kooij, Wim Gerritsen is busy with another book on unicorns, I assume in English this time.
 
Alexandra van der Geer

________________________________

From: Indology on behalf of Lars Martin Fosse
Sent: Tue 7-12-2010 14:08
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] new EJVS issue 17-2: Vajracharya on Unicorns



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