A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.19

c9.19

The wolf (*vṛika*) is mentioned more frequently in the *Rigveda* than the lion himself, and there are many references to the boar (*varāha*), which was hunted with dogs. The buffalo (*mahisha*), in the tame as well as the wild state, was evidently very familiar to the poets, who several times allude to its flesh being cooked and eaten. There is only one reference to the bear (*ṛiksha*). The monkey (*kapi*) is only mentioned in a late hymn (x. 86), but in such a way as to show that the animal had already been tamed. The later and ordinary Sanskrit name for monkey, *vānara* ("forest-animal"), has survived in the modern vernaculars, and is known to readers of Mr.