Human Animal Interactions in the Early Deccan: Synthesising the Gahasattasai and Zooarchaeological Sources

Gururaj T. Wakchaure

Believed to have been compiled by the Satavahana Hala in the first century CE, and modified over the next five centuries, the Gahasattasai is the oldest text in Maharashtri Prakrit that throws light on the aspects of rural life, eroticism, gendered relations, ecology, moralism etc; frequently sidelined by the epigraphs and Sanskrit texts, it has faced an interpretative absence in reconstructing the social history. Overshadowed by eroticism, the text is one of the finest examples of the human animal interactions; it depicts about ten species of mammals, one semi-aquatic, aquatic and Mollusca each, followed by eight varieties of Aves. These depictions are thematically diverse, not only occurring in forms of metaphors or similes but very much beyond it, representing the emotionality between the two. While, the zooarchaeological remains of animals in the deccan do help us in understanding the domestic, economic and culinary aspects human-animal interactions—primarily of draught animals: cows, buffaloes, goats, sheep, gaur, dogs, pigs, the epigraphical depictions do assist us in understanding their socio-religious significance; on the other hand, their symbolic importance could be understood by numismatic sources and terracotta remains. Although, not as extensively as the Gahasattasai, the Classical Accounts do also mention a few animals in the context of Deccan. The paper aims to give a comprehensive understanding of human-animal interactions in the Deccan (1st to 6th Centuries CE), by weaving together the literary sources: Gahasattasai, classical accounts; and archaeological sources: zooarchaeological remains, epigraphs, coins and terracotta art.