Q: mArjArahatyA

[Michael Rabe]

>At 06:16 PM 9/10/97 BST, S Krishna wrote:
> There was a
>>Brahmin lady who happened to eat food that wasn't intended for her and
>>on subsequent enquiries, accused a cat that happened to be a pet of the
>>local Goddess( I get the impression that he means "Folk Goddess"/Village
>>Diety here). The Goddess took revenge by killing the Brahmin womens
>>children. On propriating the Goddess's cat, the woman managed to get
>>back her children. So, he says "SOME Hindus regard it
>>sinful to kill a cat".
>
>I don't recall if it has already been mentioned that cats often appear in
>conjunction with stories like this about the goddess .Sa.s.thii; nor do I
>know if any of the stories about her are canonical.
>
>W. Trimble


Sounds like we're coming full circle to last summer's thread about Durga's
lion, which I (still) can trace back to analogues in Kusana coinage and
Ishtar, and Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of ancient Egypt, while we're
at it!

Seriously,

Michael Rabe

P.S. Three cheers for the haasya-rasam from S Krishna, Sudalaimuthu
Palaniappan and N. Ganesan