The Hindu Business Line : <i>Naagalok</i> notes

Do names matter? It does a lot, in the world of animals. Scientific names of animal species come packed with a lot of punch, extensive information and, at times, even (unintended) humour.

B. Vijayaraghavan, chairman of the Chennai Snake Park Trust, has been researching the origin of Indian snake names and recently released a very interesting compilation called Name-Dropping in Latin. One plant, for instance, is actua lly called ‘Welcome home husband however drunk you may be’, as translated into English from the Latin Sempervium!

“As far as animals are concerned, next to birds, snakes have some very fanciful names,” he says. From cobras to brahminy worm snakes, Vijayaraghavan scans a wide range of snake names. The book narrates fascinating stories of how various snakes were discovered and their subsequent naming. For instance, the cobra gets its scientific name — Naja tripudians —from the Sanskrit naaga, which is of the Old High Germanic base snachan or ‘to creep’. Tripudians is from the Latin tripudium for religious and war dances. Two words to sum up the basic behavioural traits of an animal.

The book also lists some interesting trivia. You get to know that the youngest person to have a snake named after him is Nikhil, son of Romulus Whittaker (of the Chennai Crocodile Bank). Oligodon nikhili is the kurkhuri snake that Nikhil accidentally discovered as a four-year-old. Young Nikhil had picked up this snake from the roadside where he was playing and brought it home to show his father!

On the flip side, though, some of these names can be way off-mark or plain misleading. The Ramohotpholops brahminus (brahminy worm snake), for instance, remains a mystery as to why it was so named or its connection to the word ‘brahmin’. “In some cases, we don’t know how these names came about; we can only make a guess,” Vijayaraghavan says. He hopes the book will make a difference to the way people in general perceive snakes. “There is still a lot of prejudice against snakes. The idea behind this compilation of snake names is to negate this prejudice and get people to become familiar with snakes, rather than thinking of them as strange, fearful creatures,” he explains.

Apart from a lot of research and reading, he has infused the book with humour and anecdotes. And he is no stranger to writing, having authored several articles for newspapers and magazines.

At 72, he has behind him an eventful career. After retiring from the civil services in 1993, Vijayaraghavan took over the running of the Chennai Snake Park Trust as its honorary chairman. His achievements include modernisation of the snake and reptile enclosures and evolving an educational programme that includes sending reptile specialists to schools and colleges to help demystify these creatures among young minds. The park’s python breeding programme has become successful and the young pythons bred here are regularly exchanged for exotic snakes from elsewhere. He however admits that research has not picked up steam.

Surprisingly, Vijayaraghavan has no formal background in animal biology, apart from a general interest in nature and a specific interest in bird watching. “What I like about snakes is the mystery about them and their little-understood behaviour. These animals have the command of so many facilities which can leave us dumbstruck. For instance, pit vipers can in a sense ‘see’ in the dark,” he says..

He hopes his book will foster greater understanding among the general populace.

“Becoming aware of the etymology and significance of the Latin name transforms the gobbledygook into an interesting tit-bit that imprints the name in our memory. We can see it in a new light as it were. It is almost as if henceforth, we can deal with it on first-name terms.”

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