A thematic and etymological glossary of aquatic and bird genera names in Iranian Bundahišm

The purpose of this study is to present a thematic and etymological glossary of aquatic and bird genera names which have been mentioned in Iranian Bundahišn. In this research, after arranging animal names in Persian alphabetic order in their respective genus, first the transliteration and transcription of animal names in middle Persian language are provided. Afterwards, the part of Bundahišn that contains the actual animal names and the relevant translations are mentioned. The etymology of every animal name is described by considering the morphemic source. Finally, mention is made of the mythology connected to the animal and the animal category in Iranian Bundahišn (if available), and the way in which the words have changed from Old Persian up to now. Changes in the name of every animal from the ancient languages such as Indo-European, Sanskrit, Old Persian and Avestan to middle languages such as Pahlavi, Sogdian, Khotanese, and Chorasmian and how the name appears in new Iranian languages and dialects such as Behdini (Gabri), Kurdi, Baluchi and Yaghnobi are also referred to.


INTRODUCTION
Bundahišn, the most valuable and the most important book in Pahlavi, is a religious-historical book that consists of approximately 13000 words and since it incorporates a lot of information on the mythology and sciences related to the Pre-Islamic era, it may also be regarded as a kind of encyclopedia of the Pre-Islamic era. This book includes stories about creation, the battle of Hormozd (Ahura Mazda) and Ahriman, discussions on four eras of three thousand years, mythological and the real history of Iran from Pishdadian dynasty to the arrival of Arabs, as well as information regarding prediction of upcoming events, the end of the world, and the emergence of Saoshyant, doomsday and Tan e Pasin (resurrection plus incarnation). This book, also, includes explanations concerning astronomy, astrology, calendar, zoology and the geology of the Pre-Islamic era.
Bundahišn may be regarded as the most important source to get access to Pahlavi vocabulary since it includes different subjects. The original title of the book was n "Zand Agahi"; however, since the first subject discussed in the book was the creation of the world, the name Bundahišn was assigned to it later on (Bahar, 1966 pp. [1][2]. As for the etymology of the title of the book, the word Bundahišn consists of two parts: Bun originating from the Avestan word bunameaning "beginning" and dahišn the gerund of dādan meaning "creation" which is derived from √dā meaning "making and creating" (Cheung, 2007 p. 45). Farnbagh Dadagi, the author of Bundahišn, is supposed to have lived in the late 3 rd century AH. Bahar, in the translation of Bundahišn, introduces the author of the book by saying that he was from the magi family who is related to Manuchehr Shahriar by thirty generations on the paternal side and thirty six generations on the maternal side (Bahar, 2011 p. 6).
There are two versions of Bundahišn: one of them is the abridged version known as the Indian Bundahišn and the other is the full version which is named the Great Bundahišn or the Iranian Bundahišn. The Iranian Bundahišn is divided into 46 chapters which make the book more detailed and comprehensive than the Indian Bundahišn (Bahar, 1966 pp. 1-2).

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences
Online: 2015-10-29 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 62, pp 39-52 doi: 10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.62.39 2015 SciPress Ltd., Switzerland The first part of Bundahišn is about the beginning of creation, and the next parts are about physical creation, creation of the stars, how and why creatures are created for battle, Ahriman's invasion of creation, the hostility of the two skies, world horoscope, and the strive of the creatures against Ahriman. The ninth part of the book provides further information about creations and it is divided into chapters on the qualities of fields, mountains, seas, rivers, lakes, animals, people, women, the emergence of every genus, vegetation, lordship of people and sheep, and also the qualities of fire, dream, sounds, wind and rain, vermin and wolf genus.
The next parts of Bundahišn incorporate descriptions of religious year, magnitude of Minavian "heavenly" gods, evil of Ahriman and demons, anatomy of man resembling the world, leadership of countries, Činvat Peretum and the spirit of the ancients, the famous cities of Iranshahr and kings' palaces, edifices that kings created, doomsday and resurrection, genealogical tree of the kings, ancestry of the magi and the calendar of the Arabs in twelve thousand years. In sum, the issues presented in the book may be divided into three major categories: religious and mythical beliefs, geographical contents and historical subjects. Regarding the topic of this study, there are detailed chapters in Bundahišn on animals and their subdivisions as follows: 1-Karde which is based on the kind of animal: domestic or wild, and bird or aquatic. 2-Ayineh which is based on the shape of the feet in the animal: cloven hooves and one hoof animals, pedate animals, birds or fishes. 3-Genus that is a term used to refer to the minor subdivisions of every group of animals like dogs, horses and donkeys. (Bahar, 2011 p. 12) Specifically speaking, chapters 7, 13, 15, 22, and 23 of Bundahišn are about the variety of creatures, useful quadrupeds, advent of creatures, harmful animals and species of wolves, respectively.
In this study the focus is to examine animal names mentioned in Bundahišn within the genera of aquatic animals and birds in an alphabetical order. In order to present the necessary information, the format of a thematic etymological dictionary is followed. A thematic etymological dictionary, as the name suggests, is a dictionary in which the words are primarily classified according to their themes and then the words are alphabetically arranged and further elaborated on according to their etymology. Regarding ancient Iran, the thematic dictionary is not unprecedented since two small samples of this type of dictionary have survived. One of them is oīm ēwag which is an Avestan thematic dictionary in Zoroastrian middle Persian and the other one is Pahlawīg dictionary which is about kings and difficult Zoroastrian middle Persian words.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Texts related to the middle Persian language which have survived are little known but vast resources with regard to their content and remarkable vocabularies. In fact, after Dinkard, Bundahišn is the most important surviving text from Pahlavi literature. Thus it may be said to be a significant useful resource that may be used for etymological studies in the Persian language as well as other Iranian languages and dialects.
In this study, it has been attempted to compile a glossary which includes precise information about words related to aquatic animals and birds so that it may be used as a rich reference to check originally Persian words in the zoology of ancient Iran. This research gains further significance when it is noticed that, to the best of the researchers' knowledge, so far no such thematic glossary has ever been compiled in this area based on Bundahišn.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to describe words related to aquatic animals and birds in Bundahišn in terms of their theme and etymology to compile a glossary in this regard. In fact, collecting all animal names existing in Pahlavi texts and studying their etymology is not possible in

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Volume 62 one article; therefore, the present study sought to describe these names in Bundahišn, which is regarded as an encyclopedia in its era. It is worth mentioning that in this study we try to consider the trend of change in the names of the animals precisely from the ancient era to the middle era and from the middle era to the new era. In fact, showing the evolutionary course of word changes is one of the important objectives of the present study.

METHOD OF THE STUDY
The method used in this study is the library method in that each animal name mentioned in Bundahišn is written first based on the genus and Persian alphabetic order, then the meaning in English, and the transliteration, transcription, and a part of the text in which the word was originally used will be presented along with its translation. After that, the equivalents of animal names are presented in different languages where they are mentioned, respectively: first the Indo-European and Sanskrit and then Avestan, Old, middle, Parthian, Manichean, Pazand, Balkhi, Khwarizmi, Khotani, Saka (Buddhist, Manichaean, Christian) Persian languages and Balochi, Behdini, Kurdish and Yoghnobi dialect. It is attempted to choose the equivalent of each word in other languages from the authentic dictionary in that language, that is, for example, Indo-European: Pokorny (2007), Sanskrit : Mayrhofer (1986: Mayrhofer ( -1992: Mayrhofer ( -1997: Mayrhofer ( -2001, Avestan: Bartholomae (1961), and Old Persian: Hinz (1975) and Kent (1953). So the trend of change can be seen from the ancient era to the middle era and finally to the New Persian. Then in the section of word definition, with reference to the studies done earlier in this regard, different ideas regarding the word put forward by the scholars in the new and up-to-date references will be presented.

LITERATURE REVIEW
In relation to the publication, interpretation and translations of Pahlavi texts there are valuable dictionaries and various books in different languages by great scholars and researchers. Research in this field makes it necessary to use these texts, a number of which are reviewed below. For example, we can refer to translations of the whole of parts of the book by Duperron (1771) in French, West (1880) in English, and Modi (1901) in Gujarati. Furthermore, Anklesaria (1908) published the TD2 Bundahišn and the book was known as the most complete text in English. Bartholomae (1911) published a critical text of Bundahišn on the middle Iranian studies. Later on, Anklesaria (1956) transcribed and translated the great Iranian Bundahišn into English. More recently, Pakzad (2005), whose work includes Iranian Bundahišn transcription, wrote a critical text of Bundahišn.
Regarding research on different topics covered in Bundahišn, we may refer to the following examples. Nyberg (1928) focused on the theory of creation and Mazdean astronomy, Mackenzie (1964) investigated the topic of astronomy, and Asmussen (1970) worked on the fruits existing in Bundahišn.
As for the works more relevant to the topic of this study, i.e. animals in ancient Iran, there are some books and articles. Mahyar Nawabi (1976) published a series of articles in which he studied Babr e Baian (wild tiger) and its relation to Rustam's garment. Abdullahi In spite of the great endeavors made to translate and study ancient texts and specifically Bundahišn, little attention has been paid to do a thematic etymological study of the animal names mentioned in the Bundahišn; therefore, the present study can be considered the first attempt in this regard.

GLOSSARY
In this section results of the study are presented in two sections: the first section provides elaboration on the animals in the aquatic genra and the second one on the bird genra. As mentioned before, the items in each section are alphabetically arranged and explained. (Mackenzie, 2011 p. 31, 43) panĵom asb šaš sardag tāzīg ud pārsīg ud astar ud xar ud gōr ud asp ī ābīg abārīg asp sardag. (Pakzad, 2005

Description:
In Bundahišn hippopotamus is mentioned in the chapter related to the quality of animals. According to the animal division design in Bundahišn the hippopotamus is under the genus of horses and the family of Kharpayan (donkey feet) and the species of Chara Arzani and Garishak (wild and domestic). (Mackenzie, 2011:149) ... ud udrag ud mušk-pad-rān ke az awešān dō sarfag sūrāg-hammoxtišn ... (Pakzad, 2005  In Pahlavi texts this word is also recorded as following: samōr, aȗdra, aȗdrak, samūr, samūr siyā, simōr.

Description:
Many times, fish was introduced as a famous aquatic animal in Bundahišn, also the mythical KaraMahi was mentioned. Fish in Pahlavi is pronounced māhik and in Avestan texts there is no record of any combination or derivatives form this word. In Bundahišn it is stated that Ahriman created the toad for destruction and Ahura Mazda created the KaraMahi to stand against the toad.
…Hormozd in order to stop the toad created two KaraMahi there that are always moving around "Haoma"… and surely they are the fish nourishing from Minoo (heaven) they shall not be eaten, until Frashokereti they fight… the greatest of the creature that Hormozd has created is that fish … (Bahar, 2011 p. 100).
Also In Bundahišn in the chapter related to the quality of animals, fish is known to be the twelfth group created (Abdullahi, 2002 p. 1046) and in the chapter related to Radan (the wise), KaraMahi was mentioned as the lord (Rad) of the aquatic animals: "KaraMahi, which is Araz ,is the lord of the aquatic animals." (Bahar, 2011 p. 89).

Description:
The Avestan pronunciation of toad (wazagh) is close to the modern Persian one, vazaa-(vazaghe) and in Pahlavi language it is recorded in two forms: vak, vazag and surely vak is related to the pronunciation of bak (toad) which Loḡat-e fors considers this word to mean "toad". (Abdullahi, 2002 p. 1168).
Toad is a creature of Ahriman in Avesta and is regarded as an abominable animal. In Bundahišn, Khrafstaran (the vermin) are divided into three groups of aquatic, land, winged and among the aquatic group the toad is known to be the worst of all.
Toad from the aquatic and many headed dragon from the land animals… are the worst of all (Bahar, 2011 p. 98).
In the sixth and ninth part of Bundahišn, toad is mentioned. In the sixth part of the book it is stated that the toad is created in enmity to the earth. In the ninth part of Bundahišn we can see the following: "It is said in the religion that white Haoma that is known as Gukaran tree has been grown in the Farakhkard Sea, the deep sea. And for Frashokereti (purgation) it is necessary, because eternity is from that. Ahriman, in opposition to him, has created a toad in that deep sea to destroy Haoma. To

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stop the toad, Hormozd created two KaraMahi there and they always move around Haoma. One of those KaraMahi always has its eyes on that toad." (Bahar, 2011 p. 100). Hasandoust believes that the root of this word is √pat (to fly) and the Sanskrit equivalent of this word is r ijipyá-meaning the straight flight (r ji-means straight in Sanskrit). He also relates this word to the Saka word āmata meaning nest and home which originates from √āh meaning to sit and to inhabit. This word, also, was mentioned in the form of Apīv'Blos, Apsv Pios which are proper nouns in Herodot and Kenzias (Hasandoust, 2004 pp. 48-49).

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Description: According to Hasandoust, the word Boof is probably a derivative form of Indo-European root b(e)u-(beside bh(e)u-) meaning to make sound or to sing which are taken from the same root. In Avestan, bučahin-means howling and buxti-means howl or a long song/sound (see Hasandoust, 2004 p. 218). In Avestan the word ašo.zušta-is said to be the religious name for owl (Boof) and literally it meant "Asha" (righteousness and piousness). Abdullahi (2002) writes owl in Avestan is ašo-zušta-and zušta is the past participle of the Avestan root √zaoš which means to like (p. 245). In Bundahišn the importance and holiness of the owl in the ancient world is emphasized and it is believed that their most important religious book has been sung by it, and specific rites have been mentioned there as follows: "About the Oshozosht bird which is the Zurabarak or Bahman bird which is called the owl it has been said that a part of Avesta is created in its language. When it sings, demons will flee and will not stay there. If the nail (taken) has not been charmed, demons and witches will take it and they will get angry and kill. This way that bird will take that nail, in case it is not charmed, take that to inhibit those demons and witches to do that. When it is charmed the owl will not eat it and demons cannot sin that way" (Bahar, 2011 p. 102). (Mackenzie, 2011 p. 164) . Description:

xorus (cock) [DYLKA] xrōs
The word cock is derived from √ meaning to roar and cry and roaring and crying.
This word has changed into xrōs , xrōh in Pahlavi language.
In Bundahišn, in the bird category, the cock is in one among the one hundred and ten genera. In the text of Bundahišn, also, the cock is introduced with its religious name Parodars and elsewhere it is introduced as Pes-daxsay (possessing the first sign or mark, which means the morning cry of the cock).

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The following text of Bundahišn suggests the holiness of this creature: "The cock is created to oppose demons and witches and cooperates with dogs. Zoroaster says that the dog and the cock are cooperating with Soroush to destroy Doruj (a demon)" (Bahar, 2011 p. 103).
The interesting point about the cock in the text of Bundahišn is that the male bird lays eggs: "From the male birds, the only one that lays eggs on earth is the cock which lays in front of people" (Bahar, 2011 p. 86).
az fradom murwān sēn ī sē angurag dād nē ān rad ... (Pakzad, 2005 p. 223) The first of birds was the Simurgh with three claws; it is not the lord of birds… (Bahar, 2011 p. 89 Description: This word also emerges in Pahlavi texts in the form of sēn-murwag (Orian, 1371 p. 213). Nyberg believes the word mƏrƏo.saēna refers to a big hunting bird like "eagle" thinks of it to be sēn and believes it means a miraculous eagle whose nest is on Vispubish Tree and the fruit of that tree is all kinds of cures (Nyberg, 2003 p. 175). But the mentioned word in song (yasht) 13 canto 97 meant a pious man (Zonnubi, 2012 p. 43).
Simurgh can be found in part 9 of Bundahišn belonging to the hundred and ten genera of the birds. Also in the chapter related to the lordship of people and sheep, the three clawed Simurgh is named as the first bird though it is not the lord (Rad) of the birds: "The first of the birds was the three clawed Simurgh; it is not the lord of the birds because Karshift bird is the lord, the bird brought the religion Vara Jamkard (enclosure)." (Bahar, 2011 p. 89). (Mackenzie, 2011 p. 141) yazdahōm šawāg. az awēšān dō hēnd kē sir dārēnd ud Pad Pestān waččag Parwarēnd sen-murw ud sa šawag. (Pakzad, 2005 p. 174 p. 175)
Khwarizmi: K'BS (Rezaii Bagh Bidi, 2011 p. 139). Description: Ghaghom is in the category of otters and is a creature like weasels. In Pahlavi texts it is also found in the following forms: kāgom, kākomag, kāgōm spēd, kākūmak, kāgumag. In Bundahišn, also, the white Ghaghom (kākom ī spēd) has been mentioned as one of the eight genera of otters. The white weasel (the white Ghaghom) is regarded to be the lord (Rad) of weasels in the chapter related to the lordship of people and sheep: "The white Ghaghom was created as the first of weasels; it is the lord of weasels." (Bahar, 2011 p. 89).
Also in this chapter the white Ghaghom is regarded as a creature entering Amesha Spenta company: "The white Ghaghom is the one which entered Amesha Spenta's company" (Bahar, 2011 p. 89). (Mackenzie, 2011 p. 95) ... ānōh kū wāng ī kabk be šawēd xānag ī kabg be rawēd āb be gīrēd. (Pakzad, 2005  Description: Partridge (Tihoo), also, is recorded in Zoroastrian middle Persian as kark, kabg, kapk and karg. In Bundahišn partridge is mentioned just once in the ninth part and the chapter concerning the way of creations in which the hostility of partridge to grasshopper is mentioned as an example of birds' hostility to the vermin:

Kabk (Partridge) [kpk'] kabk
"From wherever the partridges are gone and no partridges are present the grasshoppers will increase. To summarize, every wild animal and birds and fishes each of them is created to the enmity of the vermin." (Bahar, 2011 p. 103 Description: The word pigeon is also recorded in Zoroastrian middle Persian as kabūtar, kabūd, kapōtar and kabōtar. "Kaftar and Kabtar meaning pigeon and the Pahlavi form of the word kapotar roots from Kabood meaning blue. In the footnotes of Borhan Ghate it is mentioned that there is arelationship between the word Kabootar (pigeon) and Kabood (color blue): "Kabutar (pigeon) is derived from Kabood (blue) of the ancient Indian kapōta-" (Abdullahi, 2002 p.751).
The word Kabootar is only mentioned once in Bundahišn and it is in the ninth part and the chapter related to the way of creations in where explanations about Kasgin fly are available: About the wit and genius of this bird it is also mentioned that: … Wild birds are the enemies of the vermin and witches. It is also said that all birds are witty/clever. And crow is the wisest of all (Bahar, 2011 p. 102).

CONCLUSION
The results of investigation of the animal names belonging to the aquatic and bird genera mentioned in Iranian Bundahišn which were presented in detail above show that names of some birds have not changed from middle Persian to modern Persian. As an example, āluh (eagle) is currently used by Persian speakers (especially in some cities like Isfahan). Another example is būf (owl) which is still used by many Persian speakers; however, the bird used to be considered holy and significant whereas in new Persian the bird generally signifies bad omen. Some other names of birds which were employed in middle Persian are also used in new Persian, though with some minor changes in pronunciation. xorus (cock), sēn-murw (simurgh), karkās (vulture), warā (crow), kabōd (dove, pigeon), Kabk (Partridge) and kākom (Stoat) illustrate the point. Among the aquatic animals, asp ābig (hippopotamus), udrag (Otter, aquatic cat), māhīg (fish), waza (toad) underwent no major phonological change from middle Persian to new Persian, though regarding dutifulness, waza (toad) used to be considered a creature of Ahriman in Avesta and thus an abominable animal whereas among the different kinds of fish, KaraMahi, which is no more used in new Persian, was mythically regarded as the lord of the aquatic animals.
Finally, we may suggest the following as topics to be investigated in further studies in this area: whether the classification of animals in other middle era books like Zadsparm anthology corresponds with the classification of Bundahišn or not; if not, what changes in which genera of animals have occurred; whether the animals mentioned in this study have any counterparts in other civilizations and cultures; what roles the animals named in Bundahišn have in Shahnameh and later texts? What will the classification of other animal genera show?