--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> The palaeobiological and veterinarian experts quoted in the article
> discuss the rib-count question quite exhaustively. The number of
> dorsal (thoracic) vertebrae and, correspondingly, of ribs, is
> variable in many species. Sheep, for example, have 13 pairs (like
> other ruminants), but occasionally 14; pigs may have from 13 to 17
> pairs of ribs.
VA: It would be interesting here to note that the sacrifice of the
horse in Ashwamedha is preceded by that of a goat. The Rigveda does
not state the number of ribs of the goat, but its ritual text - the
Shankhayana Shrautasutra, elaborates this in the form of a verse
which should be recited before the Rk stating the number of ribs of
the horse is uttered. The goat here is said to have 26 ribs (If I
recall correctly, this verse is found in the 5th book of the
Shankhayana Shrautasutra although the Ashvamedha section appears
later).
BTW, the Rigveda is not alone in enumerating the number of horse ribs
as 34. Other texts (e.g. Shatapatha Brahmana - can look up the exact
reference if you insist) also give the same number.
It would be interesting to know how many ribs are present in the
Akhalteke horse of Turkmenistan (although 'pure' breeds might not be
present today). Does any listmember have this information? It will be
particularly interesting because IVC did have trade relations with
Turkmenistan, and while the Akhalteke need not go back to 2500 BCE,
the area is indeed postulated as one of the plausible areas where
horse domestication first occured. For instance, ZEUNER [1963:314]
says -
""That horse domestication did not originate in western or central
Europe is a point on which all workers on the subject agree, partly
for chronological reasons and partly because the horse was rare
there, most of the country being too densely forested. This restricts
the probable area of domestication to the Ukrainian and east Russian
steppes, Kazakhstan and the steppes of western Asia mainly around
lake Aral and including the plains of Turkestan, Ust-Urt Pleateau and
Turan."
********
PIOTR states -
In horses, the "2x17" character is a recessive
> feature, but I suppose inbreeding can increase its frequency in
some
> breeds (e.g. in some strains of Arabian horses). Some sources, e.g.
>
> http://www.bahrainhorses.com.bh/%5CArabHorses.asp
>
> (and also my edition of MS Encarta Encyclopedia) suggest that
> Arabians _always_ have 2x17 ribs (as well as 5 lumbar and 16 caudal
> vertebrae, compared with 6 and 18 in other horses), but that is a
> popular myth (like a similar belief concerning mustangs
VISHAL comments - You will be interested in knowing that the Vedic
texts enumerate 6 lumbar vertebrae in the sacrificial horse. To quote
the Taittiriya Samhita -
Khanda v. 7. 17.
"For Pusan the rectum; for the blind serpent the large entrails;
serpents with the entrails; seasons with the
transverse processes; sky with the back; for the Vasus the first
vertebra; for the Rudras the second; for the
Adityas the third; for the Angirases the fourth; for the Sadhyas the
fifth; for the All-gods the sixth."
**********
PIOTR remarks -
> It _is_ a mystery, which does not mean that the answer must be a
> sensational one. There are a number of possible explanations, for
> example:
>
> (1) The author of the as'vamedHa passage was wrong about the number
> of ribs in horses
VISHAL replies- Very unlikely because the horse is butchered very
carefully and signficance of the ribs, vertebrae etc, in the
sacrifice would warrant an exact count.
*******
PIOTR said -
> (2) Horses kept by the early Indo-Aryans showed this recessive
spinal
> irregularity more commonly than modern breeds, perhaps as a
mutation
> which had emerged in the wild desert horses of Turkmenistan and
which
> still occurs among Arabian horses. This would not make them a
> separate species -- just as Arabians are conspecific and fully
> interfertile with other breeds today.
VISHAL remarks - There is no need to presume a separate species when
horses have been imported regularly into India right upto our times.
The fact is however that with 34 ribs and 6 lumbar vertebrae, which
scenario has a greater chance of plausibility - that the Aryans
brought the horse with them around 1500 BCE, or that the horse was
imported even by IVC folks?
*****************
> PIOTR said -
> (3) The number 34 had a symbolic significance (the number of
> celestial bodies and constellations, perhaps also of gods) and was
> deliberately assumed to be the number of horse ribs for ritual
> purposes, even if this assumption required a little licence.
VISHAL remarks - In fact, the signficance of 17 x 2 or 34 is not very
apparent in the Ashvamedha rite. On the contrary, the number 17 has
great signficance in other rites like the Rajasuya, and Dvadashaha.
Let me quote some passages from the Shankhayana Shrautrasutra -
QUOTE -
1.16.19 `Likewise, the number of enkindling verses in istis and
pasubandhas is (always) seventeenÂ…
2.1.17 Seventeen enkindling verses are recited in the isti for Aditi
13.19.1 `The gavamayana (has) seventeen diksa days, or twelve.
14.23.1 `The Gods and the asuras contended. The Gods resorted to
their house-chaplain Brhaspati (and said): `Devise that kind of
sacrifice, by which we may overcome the asuras'. He beheld that
sacrifice `the Bull'. By performing it they overcame the asuras. One
who wishes to overcome his haters, his rivals, should perform it.
14.23.2 `Of this (rite) of which the lauds are fifteen versed, the
midday-pavaman-laud alone is seventeen versed. This is of thos rite
the characteristic feature of the bull.
14.31.1 `The (one day rite called) `sacrifice of the most excellent'
(jyeshtha-stoma) is destined for him who belonging to a lower family
wishes for excellence.
14.31.2 `The out of doors laud is seventeen versed.
14.31.3 `This is among the stomas the most excellent.
In the recitation of the marutvatIya-sastra,
15.2.12 `There is a mess of wild rice, of seventeen zarAvas, for
Brhaspati
15.2.13-14 `Prajapati, the vajapeya, is seventeen fold: thereby he
provides him with his own characteristic feature.
Sacrificial fee for the Vajapeya (closely linked to Prajapati)
15.3.12-14 `He gives (as sacrificial fee) 1700 cows, seventeen
clothes, seventeen yoked carriages, seventeen chariots, seventeen
clothes, seventeen elephants, seventeen golden ornaments (niksas),
seventeen drums
15.3.15 `This makes seven seventeens
15.3.16 `That is the full (Apta) vAjapeya
15.3.17 `At the vajapeya as practiced by the Kurus (are given as
sacrificial fee) seventeen of each kind of cows
UNQUOTE
There is no symbolism connected to numbers 17 or 34 in the Ashvamedha
rite according the Shankhayana Srautasutra.
********
PIOTR remarks -
> As a linguist, I have to look at this question from a comparative
> perspective. Old English eoh, Latin equus, Greek hippos, Old Irish
> ech, Avestan aspa-, Lithunian as^va, etc., all cognate to Old Indo-
> Aryan as'va-, refer to horses, and there is no reason to assume a
> different original meaning of PIE *h1ek^wos. Of course secondary
> semantic extensions and metaphorical meanings could develop here
and
> there as language-specific innovations. None of them is traceable
to
> PIE.
VISHAL responds -
Other than the fact that the PIE *h1ek^wos is said to have resulted
from 'irregular' sound changes by some, there are numerous other
holes in the argument and time permitting I will summarize them later.
In Peter Raulwing's recent book on chariots, there is actually some
discussion on the secondary meanings of PIE *h1ek^wos (or the fact
that it itself has emerged from some roots. Interestingly, the
Sanskrit roots of the word 'Ashva' bear the same meaning!)
****
REFERENCES -
Caland, W and Chandra Lokesh. 1980. Sankhayana-Srautasutra, being a
major yajnika text of the Rgveda. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi (Reprint
of 1953 edition, Nagpur)
Zeuner, Frederick, E. 1963. A History of Domesticated Animals. Harper
& Row, Publishers. New York and Evanston
******
APPENDIX - Horse Genetics
Extracts from: "Widespread Origins of Domestic Horse Lineages",
Carles
Vila, Jennifer A. Leonard, Anders Gotherstrom,Stefan Marklund, Kaj
Sandberg, Kerstin Liden, Robert K. Wayne,Hans Ellegren in: SCIENCE,
Vol. 291, 19 January 2001,pp. 474 to 477
http://www.sciencemag.org
"Two alternative hypotheses for the origin of the domestic horse from
wild populations can be formulated. A restricted origin hypothesis
postulates that the domestic horse was developed through selective
breeding of a limited wild stock from a few foci of domestication.
Thereafter, domestic horses would have been distributed to other
regions. Under this hypothesis, domestication is a complex and
improbable process requiring multigeneration selection on traits that
permit stable coexistence with humans. Another alternative could be
that domestication involved a large number of founders recruited
over
an extended time period from throughout the extensive Eurasian range
of the horse. In this multiple origin scenario, horses may have been
independently captured from diverse wild populations and then
increasingly bred in captivity as wild numbers dwindled.
Consequently,
early domestic horses may not represent a stock highly modified by
selective breeding.
"These two hypotheses for the origin of the domestic horse make
distinct predictions with regard to genetic variation in maternally
inherited mtDNA. The restricted origin hypothesis predicts that
mitochondrial diversity of the horse should be limited to a few
founding lineages and those added subsequently by mutation. In
contrast, a multiple origins hypothesis predicts diversity greater
than that typically found in a single wild population and divergence
among lineages that well preceded the first evidence of
domestication...
"To expand the representation of modern and ancient breeds, we
sequenced 355 bp (base pairs) of the left doman of the mtDNA control
region in 191 horses from 10 distinct breeds including some that are
very old such as the Icelandic pony, Swedish Gotland Russ, and
British
Exmoor pony. A Przewalski's horse was also sequenced. We found 32
different sequences, and a search of GenBank provided 38 additional
haplotypes for the same region...
"The additional sequences affir the ancient and diverse origin of
domestic horse mtDNA lineages...
"...the high diversity of matrilines observed among modern horses
suggests the utilization of wild horses from a large number of
populations as founders of the domestic horse. A single
geographically
restricted population would not suffice as founding stock.
"...The high haplotypic diversity of ancient horse breeds and of a
Viking Age population suggests that domestic horse populations were
founded by a diversity of matrilines that, as suggested by the
archaeological record, was augmented by trade (21,22).
"...Wild horses were widely distributed throughout the Eurasian
steppe
during the Upper Paleolithif [35,000 to 10,000 years before present
(B.P.)], but in many regions, they disappeared from the fossil record
about 10,000 years ago (3,4). Horse remains became increasingly
frequent in archaeological sites of southern Ukraine and Kazakhstan
starting about 6000 years ago, where limited evidence from bit wear
on
teeth suggests that some horses could have been ridden (29,30). By
the
beginning of the Iron Age, wild horse populations had declined, and
today, only one putative wild population, the Przewalski's horse,
remains (4). Therefore, a scenario consistent with the archaeological
record and genetic results posits that, initially, wild horses were
captured over a large geographic area and used for nutrition and
transport. As wild populations dwindled because of exploitation of
environmental changes (31), increased emphasis was placed on captive
breeding, allowing for multiple matrilines of a single ancestral
species to be integrated into the gene pool of domestic horses. This
contrasts with previous notions of domestication as a complex
multigeneration process that begins with relatively few individuals
selected for behavioral characteristics, such as docility and
sedentary habits, as a prerequisite to coexistence with humans...
"In the horse, the extensive and unparalleled retention of ancestral
matrilines suggests that widespread utilizatin occurred primarily
through the transfer of technology for capturing, taming, and rearing
wild animals (29,30). In contrast, the export of domesticated horses
from a geographically restricted center of origin would have resulted
in a more limited diversity of matrilines. Consequently, in the
history of the domestic horse, transfer of technology rather than
selective breeding may have been the critical innovation leading to
their widespread utilization. Moreover, the high value of horse in
primitive societies (1,2) placed a premium on the rapid acquisition
of
this technology from neighboring communities."
1. D.W. Anthony, Curr. Anthropol. 27, 291 (1986)
2. J.M. Diamond, Nature 350, 275 (1991)
3. D.W. Anthony, in Horses Through Time. 5. L. Olsen,
Ed. (Roberts Rinehart for Carnegie Museum of
Natural History, Boulder, CO, 1996), pp. 57-82
4. J. Clutton-Brock, A Natural History of Domesticated
Mammals (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge ed. 2. 1999)
21.U.E. Hagberg, The Archaeology of Skedemosse II (KVAA 46,
Almquist & Wiksell Intl, Stockholm, 1967
22. H. Braathen, Ryttergraver: Politiska Strukturer i Eldre
Rikssamlingstid (VARIA 19, Universitetets Oldsakssamling, Oslo,
1989).
29. M.A. Levine, J. Anthropol. Archaeol. 18, 29 (1999)
30. D.W. Anthony, D.R. Brown, Antiquity 65, 22 (1991)
31. S.L. Olsen, in Horses Through Time, S.L. Olsen, Ed.
(Roberts Rinehart for Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
Boulder, CO, 1996), pp. 35-56.