A Śarabha is generally understood as an eight-legged monster, surpassing even elephants and lions in strength. A closer inspection of the sources reveals that the evidence for such a one-sided determination is entirely lacking. The notion of a Śarabha has a complex history. Its earliest attestation as a monster occurs only in late strata of the Mahābhārata. Despite this fact, the monstrous nature of a Śarabha was projected in an anachronistic manner indiscriminately onto other literatures as well. Starting, however, from the Atharvaveda, all texts previous to, or uninfluenced by, the Smārta tradition – in particular Buddhist, but also Jain ones –, keep to a different conception, one of an ordinary animal. The present article deals with the original zoological identity of the Śarabha as Mārkhor (Capra falconeri Wagn.) and with the misconceptions that motivated its gradual development into a monster.

中文翻译：

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印度学中的难题

Śarabha通常被理解为八足怪物，其力量甚至超过大象和狮子。对消息来源的仔细检查表明，这种片面决定的证据完全缺乏。Śarabha 的概念有着复杂的历史。它最早的证明是怪物，只发生在摩诃婆罗多的后期。尽管如此，Śarabha 的可怕本质也以不合时宜的方式不加选择地投射到其他文学作品中。然而，从 Atharvaveda 开始，所有在 Smārta 传统之前或不受其影响的文本——特别是佛教，还有耆那教——都保持不同的概念，一种普通的动物。本文涉及 Śarabha 作为 Mārkhor (Capra falconeri Wagn.