Fourmis Indiennes
Indian Ants

Summary/Abstract: The starting point of this contribution is Pkt. mui(y)angā and its variants which occur in Jain monastic texts (§ 1) and in certain narrative contexts (§ 2). The word seems to refer to a variety of aggressive ant. The other Prakrit words meaning “ant” are then considered. Middle-Indian sources provide information about the varieties of ants based on their colour (§ 4), on their behaviour and on the importance of smell as their leading sense, which accounts for the ant being the leader of the beings with three senses in the Jain classifications (§ 5). Contrary to what is observed in the Western tradition, the ants do not seem to be characterised in India as building insect societies (§ 6). They represent the smallest (specially in the dvandva they form with the mysterious word kunthu, § 7). Like many animal-names, the etymologies of their designations are mostly obscure, but small series of nouns characterized by specific suffixes can be isolated (§ 8).

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