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Carakasaṃhitā: Ausgewählte Texte aus der Carakasaṃhitā / übersetzt und erläutert von Alois Payer <1944 - >. -- Anhang B: Tierbeschreibungen. -- Sus scrofa cristatus. -- Fassung vom 2010-12-09. -- URL: http://www.payer.de/ayurveda/tiere/sus_scrofa_cristatus.htm
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Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand (उत्तराखंड)
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Kipling:
"The Indian village pig is counted tame by a strained courtesy, for he is in nothing like the domestic animal we know in the West. "Without are dogs," says the Scripture, speaking of that extra-mural filthiness, wherein the unclean levitical purity of the East mainly asserts itself. " Without" also are pigs, the outcast property of outcastes, enjoying with the characteristic insouciance of their race a useful and filthy freedom ; foul-feeding, slate-tinted, slab-sided, gaunt, and hideous beasts.
Moses, who is always spoken of by Muhammadans as the converser with God (Kalim ulla), never saw a Berkshire or a Yorkshire hog, and his prohibition of pigs' flesh as a food staple was a wise sanitary measure as well as a religious ordinance. In the course of time the pig has become in the estimation of Semitic peoples a boundary pillar of the faith, a black beacon of uncleanness, enhancing the snow-white purity of the chosen people. Never was so lowly and unoffending a Devil, but he is as necessary to the consciences of thousands of ignorant and devout Moslems as our Christian devil is to us. His potentialities of intelligence, humour, usefulness, and surpassing edibility count for nothing in comparison with his religious functions.
When strife arises between Hindu and Muhammadan, the pig, dead or alive, goes in the fore-front of the fray, for he is either driven into the precincts of the mosque or portions of his flesh are thrown over its walls or into its courtyard well. And his innocent name, Suar, is universally considered the vilest word in all the copious abuse vocabulary of the country.
We also use the word pig in this sense, but in a merely academic fashion, for we cherish the animal in life and praise it in death.It is doubtful whether the natives of India have an adequate conception of the influence exerted by Hinduism and Muhammadanism on each other, and very certain that many Anglo-Indians who see the creeds in conflict fail to notice their frequent fusion. When this curious subject is worked out it will probably be seen that Hindus have learned scorn of the pig from their Muhatnmadan neighbours. Levitical ordinances have always a contagious effect, appealing to the passion for respectability which is a leading note in Hindu character.
A high-caste Hindu of to-day might rate the pig as a non-Aryan animal and suggest that the boar avatar or incarnation of Vishnu as a pig was a concession of early Brahmanism to indigenous taste. Something like this I have heard, but it seems too fine-drawn a conclusion.The chase of the wild boar and a taste for his flesh have always been enjoyed by Rajput nobles and Sikh chiefs. At all events the tame pig is now almost as unclean to the Hindu as to the Muhammadan, although there is little that can be quoted against him from sacred lore. Like the donkey, his low caste makes him suitable for association with disease godlings and demons.
A pious Hindu who has recovered from smallpox buys a pig and lets it loose to Sitala or he will be again attacked. Mr. Crooke in his Rural and Agricultural Glossary mentions a curious licensed robbery of pigs. The people of one village turn out and drive off the pigs of another village by force. The owners resist as well as they can, but never prosecute the offenders. This practice is noted as peculiar to the Azamgarh district, but it seems to indicate a denial of even the right of being owned to the animal, which may once have been general.As low castes rise, it is just possible that the pigs they cherish may rise with them. Some Europeans have tried to breed and feed pigs in the Western fashion and not without success. Others have imported stock from Europe, but not all the dollars in Chicago will avail to prove the industry respectable in native eyes for many a year to come.
But there is nothing to be ashamed of in the character and conduct of wild pigs. They cut for themselves shelters from the sugar-cane or the tall millet stocks, where they breed and sleep, take the best of the crops and defy mankind. The wild boar has been known to face and defeat the tiger, and though his first impulse is to fly before British sportsmen, he often makes a gallant stand before the unequal odds of horses, razor-sharp spears, and legions of yelling rustics brought against him. No swordsman can cut right and left so swiftly and surely as the wild boar with his tusks when fighting for life. He is sometimes shot by Rajput chiefs, by whom he is as strictly preserved as the fox in England. This protection breeds boldness.
My son tells me that he was once shown a lane in a suburb of a Rajput town along which a certain well-known wild boar was accustomed to pass at dawn. The animal was next day shot by the ruler of the State and a side of bacon was despatched by special messenger on a camel as a gift to a brother prince some hundred miles away. The Maharaja took just as much interest in pointing out the course of his bullet as an English sportsman who has brought down a stag, and expressed as cordial an appreciation of the quality of the flesh as if it were venison. And yet we are constantly told that all Hindus are strictly vegetarian !The story of Buddhism is nowadays so completely forgotten that it is possible to shock a Brahman to the bone by telling him how the Lord Buddha attained Nirvana through the lowly gate of indigestion brought on by eating too heartily of the roast pork prepared for him by a faithful disciple. This is duly recorded by the best authorities, nor is it to any fair mind derogatory. The Master was old and very weary, and the Smith, his host, entertaining him in his garden, naturally pressed him to eat. Here is a pathetic note of nature, of human weakness, too often missing from Eastern stories of the half-Divine."
[Quelle: : Kipling, John Lockwood <1837-1911>: Beast and man in India : a popular sketch of Indian animals in their relations with the people. -- London ; New York : Macmillan, 1904. -- xii, 401 S. : Ill. ; 24 cm. -- S. 160 - 163. -- Online: http://www.archive.org/details/beastmaninindiap00kipliala. -- Zugriff am 2007-10-25]
Inglis:
"THE sport par excellence of India is pig-sticking. Call it hog-hunting if you will, I prefer the honest old-fashioned name. With a good horse under one, a fair country, with not too many pitfalls, and "lots of pig," this sport becomes the most exciting that can be practised. Some prefer tiger shooting from elephants, others like to stalk the lordly ibex on the steep Himalayan slopes, but anyone who has ever enjoyed a rattle after a pig over a good country, will recall the fierce delight, the eager thrill, the wild, mad excitement, that flushed his whole frame, as he met the infuriate charge of a good thirty-inch fighting boar, and drove his trusty spear well home, laying low the gallant grey tusker, the indomitable, unconquerable, grisly boar. The subject is well worn ; and though the theme is a noble one, there are but few I fancy who have not read the record of some gallant fight, where the highest skill, the finest riding, the most undaunted pluck, and the cool, keen daring of a practised hand are not always successful against the headlong rush and furious charge of a Bengal boar at bay.
A record of planter life in India, however, such as this aims at being, would be incomplete without some reference to the gallant tusker, and so at the risk of tiring
my readers, I must try to describe a pig-sticking party.There are two distinct kinds of boar in India, the black and the grey. Their dispositions are very different, the grey being fiercer and more pugnacious. He is a vicious and implacable foe when roused, and always shows better fight than the black variety. The great difference, however, is in the shape of the skull ; that of the black fellow being high over the frontal bone, and not very long in proportion to height, while the skull of the grey boar is never very high, but is long, and receding in proportion to height. The black boar grows to an enormous size, and the grey ones are, generally speaking, smaller made animals than the black. The young of the two also differ in at least one important particular ; those of the grey pig are always born striped, but the young of the black variety are born of that colour, and are not striped but a uniform black colour throughout. The two kinds of pig sometimes interbreed, but crosses are not common; and, from the colour, size, shape of the head, and general behaviour, one can easily tell at a glance what kind of pig gets up before his spear, whether it is the heavy, sluggish black boar, or the veritable fiery, vicious, fighting grey tusker.
Many
stories are told of their enormous size, and a "forty-inch tusker" is the established standard for a Goliath among boars. The best fighting boars, however, range from twenty-eight to thirty-two inches' in height, and I make bold to say that very few of the present generation of sportsmen have ever seen a veritable wild boar over thirty-eight inches high.G. S., who has had perhaps as much jungle experience as any man of his age in India. a careful observer, and a finished sportsman, tells
me that the biggest boar he ever saw was only thirty-eight inches high ; while the biggest pig he everkilled was a barren sow, with three-inch tusks sticking out of her gums ; she measured thirty-nine-and-a-half inches, and fought like a demon. I have shot pig in heavy jungle where spearing was impracticable over thirty-six inches high, but the biggest pig I ever stuck to my own spear was only twenty-eight inches, and I do not think any pig has been killed in Chumparun, within the last ten or a dozen years at any rate, over thirty-eight inches.In some parts of India, where pigs are numerous and the jungle dense, the natives adopt a very ingenious mode of hunting. I have frequently seen it practised by the cowherds on the Koosee dyaras, i.e. the flat swampy jungles on the banks of the Koosee.
When the annual floods have subsided, leaving behind a thick deposit of mud, wrack, and brushwood, the long thick grass soon shoots up to an amazing height, and vast herds of cattle and tame buffaloes come down to the jungles from the interior of the country, where natural pasture is scarce. They are attended by the owner and his assistants, all generally belonging to the gualla, or cowherd caste, although, of course, there are other castes employed. The owner of the herd gets leave to graze his cattle in the jungle, by paying a certain fixed sum per head. He fixes on a high dry ridge of land, where he runs up a few grass huts for himself and men, and there he erects lines of grass and bamboo screens, behind which his cattle take shelter at night from the cold south-east wind. There are also a few huts of exceedingly frail construction for himself and his people. This small colony, in the midst of the universal jungle covering the country for miles round, is called a batan,At earliest dawn the buffaloes are milked, and then with their attendant herdsmen they wend their way to the jungle, where they spend the day, and return again to the batan at night, when they are again milked. The milk is made into ghee, or clarified butter, and large quantities are sent down to the towns by country boats.
When we want to get up a hunt, we generally send to the nearest batan for kkubber, i.e. news, information. The Batanea, or proprietor of the establishment, is well posted up. Every herdsman as he comes in at night tells what animals he has seen through the day, and thus at the latan you hear where tiger, and pig, and deer are to be met with ; where an unlucky cow has been killed ; in what ravine is the thickest jungle ; where the path is free from clay or quicksand ; what fords are safest ; and, in short, you get complete information on every point connected with the jungle and its wild inhabitants.To these men the mysterious jungle reveals its most hidden secrets. Surrounded by his herd of buffaloes, the gualla ventures into the darkest recesses and the most tangled thickets. They have strange wild calls by which they give each other notice of the approach of danger, and when two or three of them meet, each armed with his heavy, iron-shod or brass-bound lathee or quarter staff, they will not budge an inch out of their way for buffalo or boar ; nay, they have been known to face the terrible tiger himself, and fairly beat him away from the quivering carcase of some unlucky member of their herd. They have generally some favourite buffalo on whose broad back they perch themselves, as it browses through the jungle, and from this elevated seat they survey the rest of the herd, and note the incidents of jungle life.
When they wish a little excitement, or a change from their milk and rice diet, there are hundreds of pigs around. They have a broad, sharp spear-head, to which is attached a stout cord, often made of twisted hide or hair. Into the socket of the spear is thrust a bamboo pole or shaft, tough, pliant, and flexible. The cord is wound round the spear and shaft, and the loose end is then fastened to the middle of the pole. Having thus prepared his weapon, the herdsman mounts his buffalo, and guides it slowly, warily, and cautiously to the haunts of the pig. These are, of course, quite accustomed to see the buffaloes grazing round them on all sides, and take no notice until the gualla is within striking distance. When he has got close up to the pig he fancies, he throws his spear with all his force. The pig naturally bounds off, the shaft conies out of the socket, leaving the spearhead sticking in the wound. The rope uncoils of itself, but being firmly fastened to the bamboo, it brings up the pig at each bush, and tears and lacerates the wound, until either the spearhead comes out, or the wretched pig drops down dead from exhaustion and loss of blood. The gualla follows upon his buffalo, and frequently finishes the pig with a few strokes of his lathee. In any case he gets his pork, and it certainly is an ingenious and bold way of procuring it.Wild pig are very destructive to crops. During the night they revel in the cultivated fields contiguous to the jungle, and they destroy more by rooting up than by actually eating. It is common for the ryot to dig a shallow pit, and ensconce himself inside with his matchlock beside him. His head being on a level with the ground, he can discern any animal that comes between him and the sky-line.
When a pig comes in sight, he waits till he is within sure distance, and then puts either a bullet or a charge of slugs into him.The pig is perhaps the most stubborn and courageous animal in India. Even when pierced with several spears, and bleeding from numerous wounds, he preserves a sullen silence. He disdains to utter a cry of fear and pain, but maintains a bold front to the last, and dies with his face to the foe, defiant and unconquered. When hard pressed he scorns to continue his flight, but wheeling round, he makes a determined charge, very frequently to the utter discomfiture of his pursuer.
I have seen many a fine horse fearfully cut by a charging pig, and a determined boar over and over again break through a line of elephants, and make good his escape. There is no animal in all the vast jungle that the elephant dreads more than a lusty boar. I have seen elephants that would stand the repeated charges of a wounded tiger, turn tail and take to ignominious flight before the onset of an angry boar. His thick short neck, ponderous body, and wedge-like head are admirably fitted for crashing through the thick jungle he inhabits, and when he has made up his mind to charge, very few animals can withstand his furious rush. Instances are quite common of his having made good his charge against a line of elephants, cutting and ripping more than one severely. He has been known to encounter successfully even the kingly tiger himself. Can it be wondered, then, that we consider him a "foeman worthy of our steel"?
To be a good pig-sticker is a recommendation that wins acceptance everywhere in India. In a district like Chumparun where nearly every planter was an ardent sportsman, a good rider, and spent nearly half his time on horseback, pig-sticking was a favourite pastime. Every factory had at least one bit of likely jungle close by, where a pig could always be found. When I first went to India we used to take out our pig-spear over the zillali with us as a matter of course, as we never knew when we might hit on a boar. Things are very different now. Cultivation has much increased. Many of the old jungles have been reclaimed, and I fancy many more pigs are shot by natives than formerly. A gun can be had now for a few rupees, and every loafing "ne'er-do-weel" in the village manages to procure one, and wages indiscriminate warfare on bird and beast. It is a growing evil, and threatens the total extinction of sport in some districts. I can remember when nearly every tank was good for a few brace of mallard, duck, or teal, where never a feather is now to be seen, save the ubiquitous paddy-bird. Jungles, where a pig was a certain find, only now contain a measly jackal, and not always that ; and cover in which partridge, quail, and sometimes even florican were numerous, are now only tenanted by the great ground owl, or a colony of field rats. I am far from wishing to limit sport to the European community. I would let every native that so wished sport his double barrels or handle his spear with the best of us, but he should follow and indulge in his sport with reason. The breeding seasons of all animals should be respected, and there should be no indiscriminate slaughter of male and female, young and old. Until all true sportsmen in India unite in this matter, the evil will increase, and by-and-by there will be no animals left to afford sport of any kind.
There are cases where wild animals are so numerous and destructive that extraordinary measures have to be taken for protection from their ravages, but these are very rare. I remember having once to wage a war of extermination against a colony of pigs that had taken possession of some jungle lands near Maharajnugger, a village on the Koosee. I had a deal of indigo growing on cleared patches at intervals in the jungles, and there the pigs would root and revel in spite of watchmen, till at last I was forced in sheer self-defence to begin a crusade against them. We got a line of elephants, and two or three friends came to assist, and in one day, and round one village only, we shot sixty-three full-grown pigs. The villagers must have killed and carried away nearly double that number of young and wounded. That was a very extreme case, and in a pure jungle country; but in settled districts like Tirhoot and Chumparun the weaker sex should always be spared, and a close season for winged game should be insisted on. To the credit of the planters be it said, that this necessity is quite recognised ; but every potbellied native who can beg, borrow, or steal a gun, or in any way procure one, is constantly on the look out for a pot shot at some unlucky hen-partridge or quail. A whole village will turn out to compass the destruction of some wretched sow that may have shown her bristles outside the jungle in the daytime.
In districts where cultivated land is scarce and population scattered, it is almost impossible to enjoy pig-sticking. The breaks of open land between the jungles are too small and narrow to afford galloping space, and though you turn the pig out of one patch of jungle, he immediately finds safe shelter in the next. On the banks of some of the large rivers, however, such as the Gunduck and the Bagmuttee, there are vast stretches of undulating sand, crossed at intervals by narrow creeks, and spotted by patches of close, thick jungle. Here the grey tusker takes up his abode with his harem. When once you turn him out from his lair, there is grand hunting room before he can reach the distant patch of jungle to which he directs his flight. In some parts the jowah (a plant not unlike broom in appearance) is so thick, that even the elephants can scarcely force their way through, but as a rule the beating is pretty easy, and one is almost sure of a find."
[Quelle: Inglis, James <1845 - 1908>: Tent life in Tigerland, with which is incorporated Sport and work on the Nepaul frontier. Being twelve years’ sporting reminiscences of a pioneer planter in an Indian frontier district. -- London, Low, Marston, 1892. -- xxiv, 690 S. : Ill. ; 26 cm. -- S. 443 - 450. -- Online: http://www.archive.org/details/tentlifeintigerl00ingliala. -- Zugriff am 2007-10-31]
Lydekker:
"The Indian wild boar (S. cristatus) is so closely allied to its European cousin that it is frequently regarded as specifically inseparable. It is, however, a somewhat taller animal, with a thinner coat of hair and no under-fur ; but it is more especially distinguished by the presence of a crest or mane of long black bristles running from the nape of the neck along the back, and by the more complex structure and larger size of the last molar tooth in each jaw. As regards the latter characteristic, it
may be observed that in the European wild boar the hindmost of the three lobes constituting the last lower molar, is not more complex than in the specimen figured on p. 425 ; but in the Indian species, and more especially in the males, this lobe (the one on the left of the figure) is complicated by the addition of one or more extra tubercles to the hinder extremity, thus making the whole of this tooth considerably longer and more complex.
Analogous but less strongly - marked differences may be observed between the corresponding upper teeth of the two species. The usual height of the Indian wild boar varies from 30 to 40 inches at the shoulder, but it is stated that one specimen has been killed standing upwards of 43½ inches ; while the weight ranges from 200 to considerably over 300 lbs. When extracted from the jaw, the lower tusk of a fine boar will measure somewhere about 8 or 9 inches in length ; but specimens measuring 9½ and 10 inches have been recorded, and one is said to have been obtained which measured upwards of 12 inches.
The Indian wild boar is found in suitable spots throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma, and also in the wooded districts of the outer Himalaya, extending into the interior as far as Kashmir. Since the habits of all swine are very similar, while those of the Indian wild boar are best known to Englishmen, we may give an account of them in this place. As we have said, pigs generally frequent moist or marshy situations, where there is plenty of cover, and their great characteristic is their habit of turning up the ground with their snouts in search of food, leaving marks by which their presence in a district can be instantly recognised. It is this habit which renders these animals so especially obnoxious to the cultivator. During the day the Indian wild boar makes his lair in any convenient cover, sometimes in tall grass, at others in reeds or sugar-cane, and at others in bushes or forest, while not unfrequently standing crops other than sugar-cane afford the necessary shelter. In the mornings and evenings he wanders forth in search of food, in cultivated districts devastating the crops, but away from human haunts he depends chiefly upon roots, those of a kind of sedge being especial favourites. Wild pigs will, however, readily feed on the carcases of animals and other carrion, while in Assam they are stated to be in the habit of digging out the fish which bury themselves in the mud during the dry season. According to Mr. Blanford, pigs are less nocturnal in their habits in remote districts than in those where they are much disturbed.
While the females and young associate in droves or "sounders," usually comprising from ten to a dozen head, and rarely exceeding twenty, the old boars are solitary.
The number of young produced at a birth by the European species varies from six to ten, after a gestation of four months ; and frequently at least two litters are produced in a year.
The lower tusks of the male wild boar, which project about 3 inches from the jaw, and are kept with edges as sharp as razors by wear against those of the upper jaw, are most formidable weapons, capable of ripping open a horse at a single stroke. Both the European and the Indian species are among the boldest and fiercest of all animals, charging men, horses, or elephants time after time without a moment's hesitation, and in spite of the most desperate wounds. Indeed, the injuries that a wild boar will sustain without loss of life are perfectly marvellous. A correspondent of the Asian newspaper relates that he once killed an old boar, in the skull of which the broken extremity of the tusk of another boar was firmly embedded, with its point penetrating into the brain-cavity a short distance behind the left eye.
Although the speed of a wild pig is considerable, yet it cannot be maintained for any long distance, and accordingly, either a boar or a sow may be easily overtaken by a well-mounted horseman after a comparatively short run. Both as regards speed and inclination to fight there is, however, considerable local variation among the wild pigs of India; the large heavily-built animal found in Bengal being much more disposed to show fight than the lighter pig of the Punjab, which has a greater turn of speed. In spite of its boldness, the Indian wild boar seldom makes unprovoked attacks ; but when once roused nothing will stop it. An instance is on record of a boar charging, overthrowing, and ripping open a camel; and there are several well-authenticated cases of boars having attacked and killed or beaten off tigers.
In Germany the European wild boar is hunted with boarhounds ; and when in the highlands of Ceylon Sir Samuel Baker was in the habit of hunting the Indian pig with a pack of dogs, and despatching his quarry single-handed with a hunting-knife. In all parts of India where riding is possible the wild boar is, however, always speared ; and the sport of "pig-sticking," as it is commonly called, is undoubtedly by far the finest and most exciting of all the many kinds of Indian shikar. One of the best grounds for pig- sticking is the old valley of the Ganges in the neighbourhood of Mirut, locally known as the Khadir. Here "the ground," writes General Kinloch, "consists of level plains covered with grass and intersected with deep nullas or ravines, some dry, others full of water ; with deep but invisible ditches ; holes varying in size, from pits large enough to swallow up horse and rider to others just big enough to admit a horse's leg ; hidden stumps, and tangled bushes ; and over this one has to gallop at racing pace." Falls are of course frequent, although severe accidents are less common than might have been expected.
A smaller species of pig inhabits the forests of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and stands only some 20 inches in height at the shoulder. In addition to its small stature, the Andaman pig (S. andamanensis) is further distinguished by its relatively short tail, the shagginess of the coat, the absence of the crest of long hair on the neck, and, above all, by the relative shortness of the hindmost lobe of the last molar tooth in the lower jaw.
The third Indian representative of the genus is the pigmy hog (S. salvanius), of the forests at the foot of the Himalaya in Bhutan, Sikhim, and Nipal. These tiny little pigs are scarcely larger than hares, standing only about 11 inches at the shoulder. They are brown or blackish brown in colour, with small, naked ears, very short tail, and only three pairs of teats in the female instead of the usual six. From the little that is known of the habits of these pigs in the wild state, it appears that they generally live in herds of from five to twenty head in grass-jungle, and that the old boars remain with the sows. Probably the number of young produced at a birth is less than in other pigs."
[Quelle: Lydekker, Richard <1849-1915>: The royal natural history / edited by Richard Lydekker ; with preface by P.L. Sclate. -- London ; New York : F. Warne, 1893-96. -- 6 Bde. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm. -- Bd. 2. -- S. 426 - 429. -- Online: http://www.archive.org/details/royalnaturalhist02lyderich. -- Zugriff am 2007-09-27]
Blanford:
"Sus cristatus. The Indian wild Boar.
Sus cristatus, Wagner, Münch, gel. Anz. ix, p. 535 (1839) ; Blyth, Mam. Birds Burma, p. 43 ; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 193.
Sus scrofa, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 104 ; Elliot, Mad. Journ. L. S. x, p. 219 ; Blyth, Cat. p. 139 ; Blanford, J. A. S. B. xxxvi, p. 197 (nec Linn.).
Sus indicus, Gray, List Sp. Mam. B. M. p. 185 (1843) ; Cantor, J. A. S. B. xv, p. 261 ; Kelaart, Prod. p. 78; Jerdon, Mam. p. 241.
Sus affinis, Gray, List Ost. Sp. B. M. (1847), p. 71 (no description).
Sus zeylonensis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xx, p. 173 ; xxi, p. 351.
Sus bengalensis, S. indicus, and S. zeylanensis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxix, p. 105.Suar, Barha, Bad or Bura jānwar, H. ; Dukar, Mahr., Guz., Sind. ; Hikh, Baluch ; Gurāz, Kuk, P. ; Pandi, Tarn., Tel., &c. ; Katu-pani, Tam. ; Paddi, Gond ; Bir Sukri, Ho-Kol ; Kis, Rajmehal hill tribes ; Handi, Mikka, Jevadi, Kari-jāti, Can. ; Sukaram, Mal. ; Walura, Cing. ; Banel, Nepal. ; Ripha, Phāk, Bhotia ; Sarao, Daphla ; Bali, Techim, Mishmi ; Sniang, Khasi ; Vāk, Garo ; Omar, Hono, Kachari. ; Kubak, Tharo, Kashag, Mengi, Vāk, Naga ; Eyeg, Abor : Mu, Khamti ; Ok, Manipur ; Vu, Kuki ; Vhu, Aka ; Wa, Singpho ; Tau wet, Burm. ; Kalet, Talain ; Hto, Karen ; Mu, Shan ; Bābi utan, Malay.
A crest of lengthened black bristles from the nape along the back. Hair coarse and bristly throughout, thin on the sides, and still thinner below. No woolly underfur. Tail extending nearly to hocks, scantily haired except at the tip, which is compressed and fringed on each side. Ears thinly clad externally, more thickly within. The last lower molar always, and the last upper molar generally, longer than the two preceding molars together. Mammae 6 pairs.
Colour. Black, more or less mixed with rusty brown or whitish ; young animals browner, old -animals greyish. The young, when first born, are light fulvous brown, with longitudinal stripes of dark brown.
Dimensions. Adult animals measure about 5 feet from nose to vent; tail 8 to 11.5 in., with hair a footer more; ear 5.5 in. Height 28 to 36 inches at the shoulder ; according to Simson, one of the largest boars he ever killed (in Bengal, where some are of great size) was just under 38 inches high. Males are larger than females. Basal length of a large boar's skull 13.75 inches, zygomatic breadth 7.3. Weight of adults from about 200 to considerably over 300 lb. (4 maunds). The lower tusks in a large hog are said to have measured 12 inches in length, including the portion imbedded in the jaw, but they rarely exceed 9.
Distribution. Throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma; on the Himalayas to a considerable elevation. Capt. Baldwin says he has seen their tracks at 15,000 feet.
Varieties. Blyth at one time divided the wild pigs of India into 3 species, distinguished by the form of the skull, and especially by the breadth and convexity of the frontal plane in the parietal region, the skull of the large Bengal type being broadest and most convex, and a Ceylonese skull narrowest. There appears, however, to be no constant distinction, although large skulls from the Gangetic plain exhibit the peculiarities noticed by Blyth. The other characters mentioned by him are not, I believe, peculiar to the Bengal race.
Some years ago I called attention (J. A. S. B. xxxvi, p. 197) to the occurrence in forest and bush-jungle of whole herds of brown pigs, and to my having seen a large solitary hog of the same colour, a dull brown, quite different from the usual blackish tint. This was on the Nerbudda, south-east of Indore ; but I have seen pigs of the same colour in various parts of India, including, I think, Western Bengal The same variation has been noticed by Forsyth.
Sus cristatus is distinguished from the European wild boar, S. scrofa, by its much more developed crest or mane, and by the proportionally greater size and complexity of the last molar in each jaw. The Indian pig is higher, and much more thinly covered with hair. According to Jerdon the tail is more tufted and the malar beard more marked, perhaps owing to the hair in general being less shaggy. The wild pigs of Baluchistan and Afghanistan may be S. scrofa, as are, I think, those of Persia and Mesopotamia.
The tame pig of India is doubtless derived from the wild animal and probably breeds with the latter in places. I have more than once seen a litter of tame young pigs striped ; and as this peculiarity is wanting in tame animals generally, such litters may have been the produce of tame sows by wild boars.
According to Blyth the Tenasserim wild pig is a much smaller form, adult skulls being one-fifth less in linear dimensions.
Habits. The Indian wild boar is found during the day in high grass or bushes, sometimes in forest and often in high crops the females and young as a rule associating in herds or "sounders" usually of ten or a dozen, and rarely exceeding about twenty individuals, whilst the adult males keep apart. They roam about and feed on various vegetable substances in the morning and evening. They are partial to marsh, and feed largely on the roots of plants growing in swampy places especially, according to Jerdon, on those of a sedge that is found on the edges of tanks. They turn up the soft ground with their snouts when rooting about for food, and leave marks easily recognized. No animals are more destructive to crops. The food of wild pigs is, however, not absolutely restricted to vegetables ; they have several times been observed to feed on dead animals, and Mr. Peal states that in Assam they dig out and eat the fish that bury themselves in mud during the dry season. Wild pigs feed much at night, but they are less nocturnal in tracts where they can feed without disturbance after sunrise.
The speed of a wild pig is considerable, but not for a long distance ; on any practicable ground either boar or sow may be caught by a fair horse within a moderate distance. Spearing hogs, or "pigsticking" as it is commonly called in India, is unquestionably the finest sport in the country, and owes its excitement to the circumstance that, as Sterndale justly remarks, a boar is perhaps the most courageous of all wild animals, and generally fights to the death, receiving spear after spear and charging horseman after horseman with reckless gallantry. Several instances are on record of desperate fights between a large boar and a tiger, and in not a few the tiger has been killed. Sterndale mentions two cases within his own knowledge. McMaster relates an instance of a boar charging, knocking over, and ripping a camel, and occasionally even elephants are attacked. Yet a boar seldom makes an attack without provocation. There is much difference in both the endurance and courage of hogs in different parts of India, the large heavy pig of Bengal having less taste for running and more for fighting than the more lightly built animal of the Deccan or the Punjab.
"Wild pigs have a habit of cutting grass and making a kind of shelter in which they are said to leave the young. Old boars may sometimes be found in these lairs, as Simson states in his ' Letters on Sport in Eastern Bengal.'
Pigs are much more prolific than most of the Ungulata. The period of gestation is about 4 mouths, and they, sometimes at all events, breed twice in the year ; the number of young is usually 4 to 6 in 8. scrofa and probably the same in S. cristatus. The European wild pigs breed in the second year and live from 20 to 25 years."
[Quelle: Blanford, W. T. <1832 – 1905>: Mammalia. -- 1888 - 1891. -- (Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma). -- S. 560 - 562. -- Online: http://www.archive.org/details/mammalia00blaniala. -- Zugriff am 2007-09-06]