Hamsa (bird)
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The haṃsa is an aquatic migratory bird, referred to in ancient Sanskrit texts which various scholars have interpreted as being based on the goose, the swan, or even the flamingo. Its image is used in
Hamsa is thought to refer to the bar-headed goose found in India (left) or a species of swan.
A tile with a hamsa bird with flowery tail from Sri Lanka, c. 12th century CE
Himachal Pradesh painting (c. 1700 CE)
South Indian painting (c. 1825 CE)
Bar-headed goose
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The bar-headed goose is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a t
Hamsa (bird)
…hamsa is indeed a swan, because according to Dutch ornithologists George Junge and E.D. van Oort he consulted, swans were rare in modern India while bar-headed geese (Anser indicus) were common. According to Vogel, Western and Indian scholars may have preferred translating hamsa from Sanskrit to swan as the indigenous…
Bar headed Goose in Kaziranga National Park March 2025 by Tisha Mukherjee 02
At Chilika Lake, Odisha, India
Bar-headed goose wing flapping in Hadinaru lake, Mysore, India
With glossy ibis Plegadis falcinellus at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India.