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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
long, and have a similar habits. In colouration also are blue-grey or bluish above and different shade of chestnut below. They are birds of mango-tops and other tree and keep to tree-trunks or branches and feed on insects and worms and also nuts if available. They are more often heard than seen, and it is their sharp notes and sound of the hammering on the bark of a tree or on hard seeds or nuts which help to locate them. All have black-bills except the vavetfronted Blue Nuthatch which has a coral-red bill. They are known as the ori in Hindi, चोर परकी (the invisible Little dove in Bangal) and सिंध्यी किप (the'सिंध्यी' bird) in परकी in Assam and I think they should be connected with some of the Sanskrit bird names like शिलीन्ध्री, कन्दली, करक, कवक, कपोती or कपोतिका occuring as below :
(१) "शिलीन्धं कदलीपुष्पे कवकत्रिपटाख्ययोः शिलीन्ध्री विहगी" - हेमचन्द्र (२) "शिलीन्ध्री कदलीपुष्पे करकत्रिपुटाख्ययोः - - - शिलीन्ध्री विहगीभिदि" - विश्वप्रकाश. (३) "कन्दली मृगपक्षि विशेषयोः" - मेदिनी (४) "पारावत: कपोत: स्यात कपोतो विहगान्तारम्" - शास्वत कोश. (५) "कपोत पारावते स्यात् कवकाखयविङ् गमे" - हेमचन्द्र, विश्वप्रकाश. (६) "कपोतः स्यात्कलखे कवकाख्यविहङ्गमे" - विश्वलोचनकोश The following subsidiary equations should help in construing the above :"गोमयच्छत्रिकामाहुदिलीरं च शिलीन्ध्रीकम्" - हारावली शिली = गन्डूपदी, a kind of worm - हेमचन्द्र, अमर शिली = स्तम्भशीर्ष - मेदिनी करक = पक्षिभेद -हेमचन्द्र कवक = Mushroom-M.Williams. "कन्दल त्रिषु उपरागे नवाडकरे कलध्वनि, शिलीन्ध्रपुष्पे" - मेदिनी "कपोत अञ्जनेऽपि स्यात्" - विश्वप्रकाश
Now farsit being both 'a worm' and 'the top of a column' offers a reasonable derivation of fresh from the two different senses of the word for it with the root ? 'to hold.' As a cather of worms farcit would be a bird, and as resting on or holding the top of a column शिलन्ध्रम would be छत्राकम् a mushroom. If the bird also is in the habit of holding on to the trunk (column) of a tree it would be properly called a FTCT-7, and its small size would justify the form forciteit just as facit should mean a small bird in addition to being the feminine of fe'l (any bird).
"कन्दली" means — a new shoot' प्रबाल which is often of a delicate shade of red and hence also 'a light red colour' (उपराग). The propriety of this name for a particular bird should .depend on these senses. The red colour of the bill (resembling a new shoot) of the vavetfronted Nuthatch, when it is resting face up against a tree-trunk- quite a common attitude for it with the body colour merging with the dark colour of the tree, would seem to justify the name
Birds in Sanskrit Literature
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