Asoka: Roads and Animals

[Thrasher, Allen]

They're better hung than lions or tigers, and elephants, though larger and stronger, have testicles that are not even visible, being within the abdomen.

They're very strong.

As part of their alpha male behavior, they are brave and on occasion aggressive - ksattriyas.

You sometimes have to watch out for bulls even when they are just grazing and you haven't done anything you know of to irritate them except be there.  So the image may not be solely about them leading the herd.

They have it over buffalo that they are considered more intelligent, and the Indian cattle certainly look it.  Western cattle, I am told, are bred for stupidity, which does not seem to be true for Indian cattle, yet.

I would suspect that all these things formed a unity in the mind of the ancient Indians, and there is no call to prioritize or separate one from the other.


Allen

Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
Asian Division, Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540-4810
The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress.





-----Original Message-----
From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Artur Karp
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 6:03 AM
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Asoka: Roads and Animals

Tangentially. Why are bulls so omnipresent in the store of Sanskrit metaphors?

Is it because of their sexual provess?

Or - because they are alpha-males par excellence? Then - reproductors, yes, but first of all leaders, leaders of the herds.

Herds observed while just grazing on some pasture? Or, rather, herds in movement, with an alpha-bull in the lead?


Artur