Thank you for these illuminating remarks.

 

> Please correct me if I am wrong, but my impression (and some reference works) treat Mauleselin as applying to she-mule as well as she-hinny, being a female form of Maulesel (m. male or hinny).

 

As far as I can see, in the field of zoology, natural sciences, and in any case among the agricultural classes, a precise distinction has always been made between mule and hinny.

This applies without exception to the standard encyclopaedias of the 19th century (examples will follow shortly) as well as to modern scientific research literature.

In contrast, it can be assumed that the difference was not so sharply seen or even blurred among the representatives of the humanities, as the many examples show we have already witnessed among - in our case - mostly Indologists (however not without notable exceptions).

 

In modern standard German, too, a “Maulesel” – unless it designates its species – is a male hinny, a “Mauleselin” a female hinny.

Compared with this, a “Maultier” is a male mule (at the same time the species as such), a “Maultierweibchen” a female mule.

 

Here is an excerpt from a classic among scientific encyclopaedias :

 

Maultier (Equus mulus)

Maulesel (Equus hinnus)

 

„Gerade bei den durch Esel beschlagenen Pferdestuten oder umgekehrt bei den durch Pferde belegten Eselinnen kommen Fehlgeburten am häufigsten vor.“

[…] Noch in der neuesten Zeit ist wiederholt behauptet worden, dass Maultier oder Maulesel unfruchtbar seien. Dies ist jedoch nicht immer der Fall. Schon seit den ältesten Zeiten sind Beispiele bekannt, dass die Blendlinge zwischen Esel und Pferd wiederum Junge erzeugten; weil man aber solch ein ungewöhnliches Geschehnis als ein Hexenwerk oder als ein unheildrohendes Ereignis betrachtete […] Ein anderes, von Pferd und Maultierstute erzeugtes Fohlen wurde in Schottland geworfen, aber von den biederen Landleuten, welche das Tier für ein Ungeheuer erklärten, sofort getötet.

 

[Mule (Equus mulus)

Mule (Equus hinnus)

Miscarriages are most common among mares mated with donkeys or vice versa among female donkeys mated with horses.

Even in recent times it has been repeatedly claimed that mules or hinnies are infertile. However, this is not always the case. Examples have been known since ancient times that the interbreeding of donkey and horse produced offspring, but [...] such an unusual event was considered to be witchcraft or a threat of mischief [...] Another foal produced by horse and mule mare was dropped in Scotland, but immediately killed by the simple country folk who declared the animal a monster.]

(Brehms Tierleben. Die Säugetiere. Dritter Band. 3. Auflage. (1900): Maultier und Maulesel.pp. 75 – 79)).

 

[The following excerpt from another work is of some significance in answering the question of what can happen when a she-donkey becomes pregnant.

 

Für die Zucht von Mauleseln muss bei der Auswahl des Deckhengstes unbedingt auf die Größe der Eselstute Rücksicht genommen werden. Für eine Eselstute kann es lebensgefährlich werden, wenn sie von einem zu großen Pferdehengst gedeckt wird und sie versucht, diese Frucht auszutragen. Wohl sagt man im Volksmund, die Frucht passe sich dem Körper an, und doch ist es schon vorgekommen, dass die wachsende Frucht für die Stute zu groß wurde, so dass Stute und Fohlen ein klägliches Ende nahmen. (Gugelberg, Helene von; Bähler, Cordula: Alles über Maultiere. Cham 1994: pp. 88f.)

 

["For the breeding of hinnies, it is essential to consider the size of the donkey mare when choosing a stallion. For a jenny mare it can be life-threatening if she is mated to a stallion who is too large and she has to carry this fruit. It is said that the embryo adapts to the body, but it has happened that the growing embryo has become too large for the jenny, so that the jenny and foal came to a miserable end."]

 

If these dimensions (stallion : jenny) are applied to the mating of the product of the first one, i.e. the mating of a she-hinny, who is even smaller than her jenny mother, to a stallion (stallion : she-hinny), it can be concluded that her risk of dying from the oversize of her foetus is even greater than that of her mother, the jenny.

 

Randomly collected:

 

Against the dictionary entries as quoted by Roland Steiner, Van Buitenen translates kharīvātsalya (MBh) as „a she-ass’s love“ (p. 435).

 

Wackernagel AiGr II,2 (p. 370) has „Maulesel“, and only „Maulesel“ for aśvatara/ī. He points to a probable etymological relationship with aśvā-starī „equa sterilis“ (= „a barren mare“), see p. 604. In this context of *(a)star-, cp. also Persian astar = a „Maulesel“ („hinny“) in Salemann’s „Persische Grammatik“ (1889: p. 7), but a „mule“ („Maultier“) in Steingass’ Persian dictionary.

 

For a correct translation of aśvatarī by she-hinny” (“Mauleselin”), cp. Harry Falk, Bruderschaft p. 95f (n. 307):

„Weg führen wir deinen Zorn, wie den Embryo aus der Mauleselin“.

 

The text runs as follows (cited without accentuation):

vi te krodham nayāmasi garbham aśvataryā iva (Āpastambīyamantrapāṭha II.22.2)

(Ed. Winternitz, Mantrapāṭha of the Āpastambins. Oxford 1897).

 

Let me add an important remark made by Jayarāma in his commentary on a parallel of the above passage in Pāraskaragṛhyasūtra 13.3.5:

yathā aśvatarī garbhapuṣṭim asahamānā amārgeṇa muñcantī, tathā.

(Ed. M. G. Bakre, Bombay 1927: p. 393).

garbhapuṣṭi clearly refers to the oversize of the embryo, which the she-hinny cannot bear and which she loses accordingly in/on a bad way.

Hinnology and mulology seem to develop into two important branches of Indology (with two sub-branches of she-hinnology and she-mulology, which quadruples the matter).

It is likely to become an obsession.

Regards,

WS