Hamsa (bird): Difference between revisions

The '''hamsa''' ([[Sanskrit]]: हंस, ''{{IAST|haṃsa}}'' or ''hansa'') is an [[aquatic bird|aquatic]] [[migratory bird]], referred to in ancient Sanskrit texts which various scholars have interpreted as being based on the [[goose]], the [[swan]],<ref name="jones">{{cite book|first=Lindsay |last=Jones |year=2005|title=, Encyclopedia of religion, Volume 13|publisher= Macmillan Reference| isbn= 978-0028657332|page=8894|quote= In Hindu iconography the swan personifies Brahman-Atman, the transcendent yet immanent ground of being, the Self.}}</ref> or even the [[flamingo]].<ref name="monier"/><ref name="cush">{{cite book|first=Denise|last= Cush |year=2007|title= Encyclopedia of Hinduism| publisher= Routledge|isbn=978-0415556231| page= 697}}</ref> Its image is used in [[Indian culture|Indian]] and [[Culture of Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian culture]] as a spiritual symbol and a decorative element. It is also used in a metaphorical sense with the bird attributed with the mythical ability to extract milk from a mixture of milk and water or good from evil. In [[Hindu iconography]], ''hamsa'' is the [[vahana]] (or ''vehicle'') of [[Brahma]], [[Gayatri]], [[Saraswati]], and [[Vishvakarma]].<ref name=cush/>

Asian language professor [[Monier Williams]] translates the term from Sanskrit as "a goose, gander, swan, flamingo (or other aquatic bird, considered as a bird of passage [migratory bird] ...)."<ref name="monier">[[Monier Monier-Williams]], Monier Williams Sanskrit Dictionary, [http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/ebooks/mw/1300/mw__1319.html हंस, Hamsa], [[University of Cologne]], Germany, {{ISBN|978-8120615090}}, page 1286</ref> The word is also used for a mythical or poetical bird with knowledge.{{cn|date=August 2021}}<!-- for the with knowledge bit - perhaps the ability to judge or discriminate --> In the [[Rig Veda]], it is the bird which is able to separate [[Soma (drink)|Soma]] from water, when mixed; in later Indian literature, the bird separates milk from water when mixed.<ref name=monier/> In Indian philosophical literature, ''hamsa'' represents the individual soul or spirit (typified by the pure sunlight-white like color of a goose or swan), or the "Universal Soul or Supreme Spirit".<ref name=monier/>

Jean Vogel, in 1952, questioned if ''hamsa'' is indeed a swan, because according to Dutch ornithologists [[George Junge]] and [[Eduard Daniël van Oort|E.D. van Oort]] he consulted, swans were rare in modern India while [[Bar-headed goose|bar-headed geese]] ([[Anser indicus|''Anser indicus'']]) were common.<ref name=vogel/> According to Vogel, Western and Indian scholars may have preferred translating ''hamsa'' from Sanskrit to swan as the indigenous goose appears plump while the swan (and, Vogel adds, the flamingo) appears more graceful.<ref name=vogel>{{cite book|first=Jean P.|last= Vogel| url=https://archive.org/details/TheGooseInIndianLiteratureAndArt |title=The Goose in Indian Literature and Art (Arts & Letters, Vol. XXVII, 1952|edition= Reprint|place= Leiden|year= 1962|pages= 1–2}}</ref>

Some{{who|date=August 2021}} have criticised Vogel's view as being over-reliant on artistic representations from south India and Sri Lanka, where the white swan is rare.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}} American ornithologist [[Paul Johnsgard]], in 2010, stated that mute swans ([[Mute swan|Cygnus Olor]]) do migrate to the northwestern Himalayan region of India every winter, migrating some 1000 miles each way.<ref>[http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=biosciducksgeeseswans Ducks, Geese, and Swans of the World] Paul Johnsgard (2010), University of Nebraska-Lincoln, page 29-31</ref> Similarly, the British ornithologist [[Peter Scott]], in his ''Key to the Wildfowl of the World'' (1957),{{Update inline|date=August 2021}} states that northwestern India is one of the winter migration homes for mute scans, the others being [[Korea]] and the [[Black Sea]].<ref>Peter Scott (1957), Key to the Wildfowl of the World, Collins, Plate II, {{ISBN|978-0002201100}}, {{oclc|867723645}}</ref> Grewal, Harvey and Pfister, in 2003, state that the mute swan is "a [[Vagrancy (biology)|vagrant]] mainly in Pakistan but also northwestern India" and include a map marking their distribution.<ref>Grewal, Harvey and Pfister (2003), ''A Photographic Guide to the Birds of India'', [[Princeton University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0691114965}}, page 58</ref> Asad Rahmani and Zafar-ul Islam, in their 2009 book, describe the three species of swans and 39 species of ducks and geese found in India.<ref>Asad Rahmani and M. Zafar-ul Islam (2009), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9EhVPgAACAAJ Ducks, Geese And Swans of India]'', Oxford University Press and IBCN, {{ISBN|9780198060338}}, Chapters 5–7</ref>  

The Sanskrit and [[Pali language|Pali languages]], both have alternate words for goose such as ''Jalapada'', ''Dhamara'', ''Cakragki'', ''Majjugamana'', ''Shvetagaruta'' and others.<ref>Maung Tin, ''[http://www.myanmarnet.net/nibbana/books/pali-pmtin.pdf Pali English Dictionary], British Burma Press'', Cornell University Archives</ref><ref>Monier Monier-Williams, ''[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html Monier Williams Sanskrit Dictionary]''. See ''Goose'', [[University of Cologne]], Germany, {{ISBN|978-8120615090}}</ref>{{Non sequitur|date=August 2021}}

The Indian ornithologist [[Salim Ali]] stated in his Azad Memorial Lecture of 1979 that Sanskrit names for birds were based on their calls, coloration, habits, gait, method of feeding or other observed traits. However, these are sometimes difficult to assign unambiguously to species. He mentions 4th to 5th-century [[Kalidasa]]'s poem about Lake Manasa. This Manasa, assumes Salim Ali, is [[Lake Manasarovar]] and then states that the ''hamsa'' birds therein should be interpreted as bar-headed geese that do migrate over the Himalayas from Tibet.<ref>{{cite book|author=Salim Ali |title=Bird study in India: Its history and its importance |url=https://archive.org/details/AzadMemorialBirds/page/n22/mode/1up/| year=1979| publisher=ICCR|place=New Delhi}}</ref> Alex McKay states that Lake Manasa is a mythical lake and there is no evidence that any Indian author or poet before the 13th-century wrote about and identified the real lake in Tibet called Lake Manasarovar. The historic Sanskrit and [[Prakrit]] literature of India does not mention the location of the mythical lake Manasa that they consider the natural abode of the ''hamsa''. Further, they do not identify this mythical lake in the poems or legends to be Lake Manasarovar in Tibet.<ref>Alex McKay (2013). Pilgrimage in Tibet. Taylor and Francis, {ISBN| 9781315027180}}, pp. 165–174</ref><ref>Alex McKay (2015), Kailas Histories, Brill Academic, pp. 375–379 with footnotes</ref><ref>For examples of Kalidasa poem where Hamsa and the mythical lake Manasa is mentioned, see: Kālidāsa (Transl: Chintaman Ramchandra Devadhar, 2006), ''The Vikramorvaśīyam of Kālidāsa'', Motilal Banarsidass, pp. 111–112</ref>

[[Ethnoornithology|Ethno-ornithologists]] Sonia Tidemann and Andrew Gosler in ''Ethno-ornithology: Birds, Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Society'' state that ''hamsa'' has been identified as "swans" in early Indian texts, and that titles such as Raja-hamsa were applied to [[Asceticism|ascetics]] and holy-men in Indian culture because ancient Hindu and Buddhist stories ascribed the ability to separate good from evil to the ''hamsa''.<ref name="Tidemannp145">{{cite book | last=Tidemann | first=Sonia C. | last2=Gosler | first2=Andrew | title=Ethno-ornithology: Birds, Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Society | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-136-54383-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9n5DFxOnjIC&pg=PA145 |  pages=145–146}}</ref>

The birds painted at the [[Ajanta Caves]] in central India ([[Maharashtra]]) on the Hamsa Jataka, as well as those in [[Sanchi]] resemble a swan (and a series of swans in one panel), states the [[art historian]] [[C. Sivaramamurti]]. These early Buddhist arts can be dated between the 3rd century BCE and 5th century CE.<ref name="Sivaramamurti1974">{{cite book | last=Sivaramamurti | first=C. | title=Birds and Animals in Indian Sculpture | publisher=National Museum | year=1974 | url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=wn1QAAAAMAAJ | pages=62–67, with Figures 64a, 64b, 68}}</ref> The text of the Jataka itself clearly describes white swans that are like clouds in a blue sky.{{cn|date=August 2021}}

In Indian mythology, it is said to eat pearls and separate milk from water from a mixture of the two.<ref>Helen Myers (1999), Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the India Diaspora, University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0226554532}}, page 4</ref> Charles Lanman states that the references to ''hamsa'' being able to separate or discriminate is used primarily in a metaphorical sense in Sanskrit poetry. This likely has some basis in mythology or nature. One possibility is the belief that the milk refers to the sap exuded from the stems of lotuses (''kshira''). The other, states Lanman, is that "the swan, goose, duck and flamingo have a series of [[Lamellae (zoology)|lamellae]] which serve as a sieve for straining their food from the water that they take in". Thus, it may be referring to the bird's ability to extract the nourishing part from a mixture.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lanman|first=Charles R.|date=1898|title=The Milk-Drinking Haṅsas of Sanskrit Poetry|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/592478|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=19|pages=151–158|doi=10.2307/592478|issn=0003-0279}}</ref>

The hamsa was also used extensively in the art of [[Gandhara]], in conjunction with images of the [[Shakyamuni Buddha]]. Nandhita Krishna translates this as swan, in the Gandharan context.<ref name="Krishna2014">{{cite book | last=Krishna | first=N. | title=Sacred Animals of India | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2014 | isbn=978-81-8475-182-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DF_af8_547EC | chapter=Swan}}</ref> Martin Lerner and Steven Kossak identify a 2nd-century BCE Gandharan relief now in the collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] (New York, item 1987.142.212) that shows a swan with a rider.<ref name="Lerner">{{cite book | last=Lerner | first=M. | last2=Kossak | first2=S. | title=The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection | publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-87099-613-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVoKd9vDSxsC | page=62}}</ref>

The hamsa is deemed sacred in the [[Buddhism]], as a symbol of wisdom.<ref name="Krishna2014"/><ref name="Gasparini">{{cite book | last=Gasparini | first=M. | title=Transcending Patterns: Silk Road Cultural and Artistic Interactions through Central Asian Textile Images | publisher=University of Hawai'i Press | series=Perspectives on the Global Past | year=2019 | isbn=978-0-8248-7798-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FvGDwAAQBAJ | pages=111–112}}</ref> Some scholars such as Donald Swearer translate it as swan,<ref name="Swearer">{{cite book | last=Swearer | first=D.K. | title=Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand | publisher=Princeton University Press | series=Buddhisms: A Princeton University Press Series | year=2020 | isbn=978-0-691-21602-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ql3sDwAAQBAJ | pages=56–58}}</ref> others such as Thien Chou as goose.<ref name="Chau">{{cite book | last=Châu | first=T. | last2=Boin-Webb | first2=S. | title=The Literature of the Personalists of Early Buddhism | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers | series=Buddhist traditions | year=1999 | isbn=978-81-208-1622-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENiK2quJcyYC&pg=PA22 | page=22}}</ref> In historic [[Art of Nepal|Nepalese art]], hamsa are either sketched as a swan or goose-like bird, while in historic [[Tibetan artwork]] it appears as goose-like bird likely reflecting the Indian region from where the Tibetan monks borrowed their iconography.<ref name="Gasparini"/>

The name in other languages in which it is culturally important are [[Hindi]]: ''hans'', [[Telugu language|Telugu]]: హంస, ''hamsa'' [[Tamil language|Tamil]]: ''அன்னப்பறவை''; {{lang-km|ហង្ស}}, ''hong''; {{lang-my|ဟင်္သာ}}, {{IPA-my|hɪ́ɰ̃θà|IPA}}, and commonly spelt ''hintha'' or ''hinthar''; {{lang-mnw|ဟံသာ (ၜိုပ်)}}, {{IPA-mnw|hɔŋsa|}} or ''hongsa''; [[Shan language|Shan]]: {{my|ႁင်းသႃႇ}}, {{IPA-shn|haŋ˦ sʰaː˨|}} or ''hangsa''; [[Thai language|Thai]]:  ''hong'' (หงส์), {{IPA-th|hǒŋ|}}; [[Malay language|Malay]]: ''angsa'' (اڠسا).