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[Full title: Terrestrial Omens (4) Animals and Birds]

When dumb creatures, like cows, horses, elephants, dogs, donkeys, camels, monkeys, serpents, inchneumons, pigs, buffaloes, deer, birds and serpents, begin to speak like 103 men (64.5.10), the king of the region dies in the sixth month (71.3.5-4.1). When an animal of one species mates with an animal of another species, it leads to great danger after one year (71.5.1. Cf. Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.56). When a dog mews like a cat, the king of the place becomes involved in great trouble (71.13.1). When beasts eat sand, embers and corn, or when cats, fish and minor insects devour one another, it is a bad omen (64.5.3-4). It is also a bad omen when animals and birds become miserable, eat feces and howl loudly (64.5. 2). When cats scream, suck 'milk' from the juicy trees (64. 7.4), and fight with owls near a palace (64.6.9), it forestalls, according to Garga, the destruction of the king and 102. Cf. Kaug. 93.14, 106; Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.63. Cf. also Kausika Sutra 93.15; 107. Kausika Sutra 135 prescribes an elaborate rite to be performed when a bamboo cracks suddenly. 103. Cf. Kausika Sutra 95; 96; Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.71.

the country. 621 The sound of the owl is generally considered inauspicious (72.3.7). When carnivorous beasts and monkeys are seen roaring 104 and yelling near a city-gate and dogs are seen crying and weeping in the cemetery, danger to the city is clearly indicated (64.8.1). Similar danger is indicated when animals and birds gather in large numbers, carnivorous beasts start howling (64.7.1. Cf. Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.67), and crows act like cranes near the city-gates (64.5.3) and strike the earth with their beaks (64.7.9). When wild animals move about in a city or a village (64.4.7), inauspicious animals, birds or reptiles 105 enter a house, or when a honey-comb is seen in a house or 106 when carnivorous beasts enter a palace, it prognosticates evil (70.5.4-5). The city wherein wild deer (ruru), spotted antelope (prsata) and other beasts are seen moving about, soon turns into a forest. The minister in that place will be killed in the seventeenth fortnight, and there will be great danger to the people (71.3.3). If frogs and scorpions harass a serpents the king will be killed (64.8.8). If animals, which are, by nature, antagonistic to one another, are seen together in friendly 104. Atharvaveda-Parisistas 64.7.9; 70.32.22. Cf. Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.68. 105. Cf. C.Hole, "Popular modern ideas on folklore", Folklore LXVI, p.324. Kausika Sutra (93.30; 123) prescribes a rite to be performed when a bird or beast touches the oblation-material. 106. Cf. Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.68. The sight of an animal or a bird carrying a piece of flesh is considered ominous by Kausika Sutra (93.36; 129).

622 relationship, it portends the ruin of the king and the people (64.3.3). Similar is the result when the creatures moving at night move about by day and those normally moving during the day move about at night (64.4.3. Cf. Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 46.66). 107 If blood flows from the horns of a cow, it indicates the destruction of the cows and the Brahmanas (64.8.6); and when cows die in a country in large numbers, it forestalls immediate danger to that country (70.13.4). If the animals and birds (like cuckoos and peacocks) get intoxicated out of season (64.4.6), it augurs danger to the country-folk (71.3. 2). If an animal walks after being killed, there is impending danger for the king (71.16.4). It is said that if a deer comes into contact with an army setting out on a military expedition, the army is bound to fail in its objective. Hence to avert that evil effect, 109 the mantra: mrgo na bhimah should be recited. If birds fly over that army, rice cooked with flesh should be offered and the mantra: aliklava jaskamade... should be recited. If a Kapinjala bird chirps at the starting of the 110 107. Kausika Sutra (93.19;112) prescribes a rite to be performed when a cow gives out blood when milked. 108. Omens relating to birds and beasts are seen at Adbhuta Br. 8; Ram. Vedic Index 10.21, 35.31; VII.6.57; Mahabharata II.102.33; Vedic Index 2.17, 95.47, 112.8; VII.7.36; Bhagavata Purana I.14.13-14; III.17.9; Brhatsamhita by Varahamihira 86. 109. Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension VII.48.3. It may be pointed out, in this connection, that this mantra has nothing to do with deer. The word mrga, in this context, does not mean deer. 110. Atharvaveda, Saunakiya recension XI.9.9.

623 111 army, the mantras: bhadram vada... should be recited (1.36.5-7). If a dog is seen running through a village, holding a bone, a horn or a piece of wood in its mouth, the Purohita should perform the Kapoti santi, employing the mantra: deva kapotah...112 (70掳.28.4-29.1).