Primate Names in Sanskrit

Primate Taxonomy in Sanskrit

I will name the primate clades and families into Sanskrit. While doing so, I will laso coin new words for some of the primates. Primates are an interesting taxonomic group, namely because of their binocular visiion, opposable thumbs, great inteligence, and the fact that humans belong to this group 

The Sanskrit name for the order Primata that I gave is कपि. The word means monkey or ape. Note that not all languages distinguish between an ape and a monkey like in English, and that apes are technically monkeys. If we want to be ambigious we can use the Sanskrit word "कपेय", meaning "apish" or "monkeyish", or more accurately "relating to apes or monkeys".

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Below is the Phylogenetic tree of Primates:

This is not how you draw a phylogenetic tree, but I drew it this way for convenience. The first thing you will notice is that Primates are divided into 2 groups. Strepsirrhini, which includes Lemurs and Lorises, and Haplorhinni, which includes Tarsiers, Monkeys, Apes, and Humans. 

The name Strepsrrhinni means "wet nose", and this refers to the fact that their Rhinnarium is moist. However, there is no Sanskrit wird for Rhinarrium, so I went with a different approach. Strepsrrhine primates have their upper lip attatched to theri gums, making it restrained. Hence I will call the clade "having a restrained upper lip" or नियतोत्तरौष्ठिन् (नियत is restrained and उत्तरौष्ठ​ is upper lip).

The Haplorrhines are so named for their "dry nose", but I will name them after the fact that their upper lips can move, allowing them to have facial expressions. Hence Haplorhinni are "having movement of the upper lip" or चेष्टोत्तरौष्ठिन् (चेष्ट​ is movement with reference to facial expressions and उत्तरौष्ठ​ is upper lip).

Strepsrhinni (नियतोत्तरौष्ठिन् )

There are two famous groups, the Lemurs and the Lorises. I will start woth the lemurs. Lemurs are prosimian primates found on the island of Madagascar and neighboring small islands like the Comoros. Their ancestors drifted on a raft from mainland Africa to the island where they found an abundance of food and no competition from monkeys. 

I will borrow the Malagasy word for Lemur into Sanskrit to honour the Malagasy people. The Malagasy word for lemur is gidro. That in Sanskrit will be गिड्रोक. Lemurs refer to the animals grouped at the super family level, so Lemuroidae, which in Sanskrit is गिड्रोकरूप​.

Now onto Lorises. India actuall has two species of Lorises. They are Slender Lorises, found in South India and Shri Lanka. They go by various names like Devanga Pilli (Telugu: thin body cat) or Devangu (Tami: thin body) or Kaadu Papa (Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam: "forest baby").

I translate these South Indian names for the animal. Thus "thin bodied primate"  or कृशाङ्ग-कपि and "forest baby" or  वनशिशु  or अरण्यशिशु. I chose the latter as it is more general, as not all Lorises are slender. The former will be used for slender bodied lorsies. Since we are naming a superfamily, it would be अरण्यशिशु​. 

Haplorhinni (चेष्टोत्तरौष्ठिन् )

To start off, lets name the Tarsiers. They look like Lorises, but they are not Lorises, so they can be named after Lorises but with the prefix अप​-. Thus Tarsiers are अपारण्यशिशु. And since we are naming the superfamily, it would be अपारण्यशिशुदृश्..

Finally Simiiforms, which are essentially old world monkeys, new world monkeys, apes, and humans. Fun fact, the monkeys of the Old World are more closely realted to us humans than they are to the monkeys of the New World.   

This means that if New World Monkeys are monkeys and Old World Monkeys are Monkeys, than Apes and Humans are also Monkeys

Now monkey in Sanskrit is वानर​. Thus Simiiformes is straightforward वानर. 

Monkeys

Now let us name the monkeys. New World Monkeys belong to the clade Platyrhinni, meaning "flat nose" as their nses are flat. I will call them "side ways nose" as their nostrils face sieways, thus in Sanskrit: तिर्यङ्नास​. The Old World Monkeys and Apes and Humans belong to the clade Catarhinni. The name means "downwards nose" as their nostrils face down. In Sanskrit, that would be अधोनास​.

Apes

Now let us move onto apes. I will name the monkeys (in the coloquial sense) some other time. The words for ape I have chosen are निर्पुच्छकपि and किंपुरुष​​. The former means "tail less primate" and the latter means "what human is that". A Kimpurusha (किंपुरुष​) is a legendary being in Hindu lore that has the body of a man and the head of a lion (not to be confused with Narasimha), but I have repurposed it to mean "ape" as (folk) etymologically it means "what human is that", because to someone who has never seen an ape, they seem to resemble vaguely like humans to the point that they will ask themselves "what human is that". 

I will use the former name for the official name of the group, but the latter will be useful in naming specific apes as it is more eloquent to say. Apes belong to the superfamily Homonoidae, so in Sanskrit that would be निर्पुच्छकपिरूप​.

With in apes, there are two types, the Hylobatidae or the Gibbons and Homonidae or the Great Apes (including Humans). Gibbons are also called lesser apes due to their small size, so I am going to cal them लघुकिंपुरुष​. Since this is a family, it would be लघुकिंपुरुषमय​. 

Homonidae are the apes that greatly resemble humans. Thus I will name it after humans with the appropriate ending, which is  दृश्. Hence Homonidae is नरदृश+ मय​ --> नरदृशमय​. For the tribe Homoninae, it will be नरदृश + आत्मक --> नरदृशात्मलक​​.

Now let us talk baout Orangutans. They are not part of the Homonidae family, but rather their own family called Pongidae. The name Orangutan comes from the Malay word "orang hutan" meaning "forest man", but I will call them "orange ape" or :tawny ape", which in Sanskrit is कपिलकिंपुरुष​.

Now back to the Homonids. The first is Gorilla. Interestingly, the Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit already has a word for it: भीमवानर. The Nepali Wikipedia entry for Gorilla uses this word. They alose made theor own Sanskrit based word for "primate" and "homonidae", but I don't agree with their choices.

 

To save the syllable count, I will call it भीमकपि. This is synonymous to भीमवानर. Since Gorillas are those of the tribe Gorillini, the Sanskrit name of the tribe would be भीमकपिसंकाश.

Next up is the tribe Homonini. This includes Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Humans. I will call the tribe as:  नराकृति + संकाश --> नराकृतिसंकाश.

Now let us name the Chimpanzees and Bonobos. The Sanskrit Dictionary for Spoken Sanskrit already has a word coined for this, which is मेध्यवानर. The Nepail Wikipedia entry for Chimpanzees uses this aswell:

Might I suggest मेध्यकपि? I propose we use this for bith Chimpanzees and Bonobos and since this is at a the Genus level, not ending is needed. Chimpanzees and Bonobos, though belonging to the Genus Pan, are very different in their temperment. The former is agressive and the latter are peaceful. This is because once upon a time, the common ancestors of the chimpanzees and bonobos were divided by the Congo river. Those on the north side had to compete for food with the Gorillas and thus evolved into the infamouslty agressive Chimpazees. The apes on the south side had no competition and became peaceful. Thus Chimpanzees are उग्रमेध्यवानर​ and Bonobos are शान्तमेध्यवानर​. 

Conclusion

So I have named much of the primate clades. I will name the lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, and mokeys (coloqial usage) later. 

Here is the summary:

Primates: पकि (कपेय​)

 Strepsrrhinni: नियतोत्तरौष्ठिन्

        Lemuroidae: गिड्रोकरूप​

        Lorisoidae: अरण्यशिशुरूप​

 Haporhinni:  चेष्टोत्तरौष्ठिन्

        Tarsiriformes: अपारण्यशिशुदृश्

        Simiiformes: वानर​

            Platyrhinni: तिर्यङ्नास​

            Catarhinni:अधोनास

                Homonoidae: निर्पुच्छकपिरूप

                    Hylobatidae: लघुकिंपुरुष​

                    Homonidae: नरदृशमय

                        Ponginae: कपिलकिंपुरुषत्कम​

                        Homoninae: नरदृशात्मलक

                            Gorillini: भीमकपिसंकाश

                            Homonini: नराकृतिसंकाश

   

                                Pan: मेध्यवानर

                                    Chimpanzee: उग्रमेध्यवानर

                                    Bonobo: शान्तमेध्यवानर

                                Homo: नर​