The Cat

[S Krishna]

Mary Storm writes:
<< Hindus rarely seem to have cats as pets, Muslims more
>often. The Prophet was himself a famous cat lover.
>A humourous Hindi short story about a wily cat and it's inadvertant
>"murder," and the complicated penances engendered, might be apropos
andfun for you to read, the story is called "Penance," and is by
BhagavatiCharan Varma.>>

Interesting, the same story "mArjArahatyA" came up for discussion some
time ago in this net. IT is interesting to see that cats are regarded as
unclean and inauspicious( vide the Hindi saying "billI rAstA kAT diyA").
The deviousness of the cat is best summed up in the Hindi/Urdu saying
"Nau sau choohA khA billI haj kO chalI"( "The cat ate 900 mice
and then embarked on the Haj pilgrimage", there are variants about the
number of mice consumed, but generically, the saying does exist).

   Of course, as Jonathan Silk has pointed out, we have the famous
sculpture in Mahabalipuram where we find the cat playing the part of the
mendicant while eyeing the mice.

Regards,
Krishna

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