The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c6.45

v1.c6.45

[ 7 ] The "ivory" mentioned in the extract is supposed by Dr. Vincent to refer to the horn of the rhinoceros. The words in the original are *elephanta ton Legomenon Bosare*, and the true import of the sentence depends uopn the word *Bosare*. Now, if *bos* be taken for a bull or a bovine animal, and *are* a corruption of the Sanskrit *araṇya*, the result will be the *Arṇa-gāo* or gour, *Bos gourus*, the enormous horns of which would no doubt be an object of great curiosity and in every way worthy of notice in a book of travels, or of presentation to a sovereign in a distant country. Dr. Taylor supposes the *Bosare* to mean the *Bos indicus*, or the buffalo;³³ but as that animal was in the time of the *Mahābhārata*, as it is now, very common all over India, its horns could not have been of such value as to be an acceptable present to Yudhiṣṭhira. The range of the gour, on the other hand, was probably confined to the western parts of Orissa, extending little beyond Chutia Nāgpur, and its horns may therefore be supposed to have been a rarity at Delhi. It is possible however, that the *Mahābhārata* alluded to real ivory, which was then, as it is now, abundant in Orissa, and Arrian referred to it, or to some product of an animal of elephantine proportions, but of bovine character. Rhinoceroses were abundant in northern India even down to the time of Baber Shah, and could not have been a rarity during the reign of the Pāṇḍus.