238 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Oct. 



With regard to the animal described in the Vedas as the Rishya, 

 which word Dr. Hang translates by " a kind of deer," and Professor 

 Wilson by " a white-footed antelope," the Babu read the following 

 extract from a letter of his to Whitley Stokes, Esq., in which he 

 conjectures it to be the Nilgao. 



" There is nothing positive to prove what particular species of 

 animal the Risky a is. A Mriga no doubt it is ; but as that word is a 

 generic term, including all the deer as well as the antelopes, it does 

 not help me in the least. The Panditas, whom I have consulted, seem 

 not to know much of the subject, and Say ana, apparently, was not better 

 off when he commented on the Aitareya Brahmana. He could only 

 ascertain that the Rishya was a species of deer (Mrigavis'eshah), and 

 he had to prove it by a quotation from a lexicographer which says, 

 " the Grokarna (supposed with some doubt to be the Nilagao by 

 Wilson), the spotted axis, the black antelope, the Rishya, the red deer, 

 and the chamari (Yak) are deer ;" gokarnah prisliatciinarsliya roliita- 

 schamarimrigdli) . But great as he was as an expounder of the Yedas, 

 and a profound Sanskrit scholar, Sayana was no naturalist, and had, 

 therefore, to stumble over every passage that referred to Vedic fauna. 

 His acceptance of the Yak {JPoephagus grunniens) as a deer is an 

 instance in point. Another, and a very remarkable one, occurs in 

 the third Book of the Taittir'iya Brahmana, p. 637 of my edition, in 

 which he describes the gomriga to be " either a wild ferocious horned 

 cattle, or a hybrid between a deer and a cow." Judging from the 

 name go and mriga, " cow" and " deer," and the mixed antelopine and 

 bovine character of the Nilgao (Por£«# tragocamelus, the Indian represen- 

 tative of the Elands and the Koodoos of Africa), I cannot but take that 

 to be the animal intended. In the Smritis an animal is named the 

 Nilabrisha, an exact synonym, of Nilgao; (Eshtavyd vahavah putrdh 

 yadyapyeho gay dm vrajet, yajeta vds' va-medhena nilam vd vrishamut- 

 srijet ;) but curiously enough it is described to be a " bull with a red 

 body, white hoofs and horns, and a yellow muzzle and tail :" nothing 

 blue, though it is named a " blue bull !" (lohito yastu varnena mukhe 

 puchchhe chajjtfndurali, setah khuravishdndbhydm sa nilo vrisha uchyate. 

 Suddhitattva, 21.1). To account for this inconsistency, I suppose, 

 Raghunandana, the author of the >$uddhi } and the Vrishotsarga Tattvas 

 knew not the animal, and confounded his authorities. The Nilgao 



