Dear Gunnar, Florent and friends,

since we are talking about siiha/lion on another thread, I thought
why not reply to this one which I wanted to earlier.

Has anyone thought about why naaga can refer to serpent, elephant and
dragon?


metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Gunnar Gällmo wrote:

> 7. The serpent gets food from the poet.
> Ahi kavimhaa aahaara.m labhati.

There are many pali words for "serpent"; etymologically closest,
actually identical, is "sappa" (sanskrit "sarpa"). "Uraga" is known
from the first sutta of the Suttanipaata, "naaga" is known by many
Westerners in its Hindi form "naag" through Kipling's Jungle Book,
etc.