The Cat

[Jean Fezas]

At 23:37 28/01/98 +0100, Peter Wyzlic wrote:
>The Pancatantra tradition knows a story of a deceitful cat. It is
>acting like a sadhu and so it deceives the other animals. But its
>only intention is -- of course -- to eat them. The popular
>edition of the Pancatantra I have at home gives this story in the
>third book. I am not sure if it is already in the Tantrakhyayika.
>If I am not totally wrong, you will find, at least, a similar
>story in the Pali Jatakas; look into the PTSD, sub voce bi.laara.
>
>All the best
>Peter Wyzlic

 ath'eko sigAlo ito c'ito ca vicaranto taM mUsikA-yUthaM disvA "imA musikA
vaJcetvA khAdissAmIti" cintetvA mUsikAnaM Asayassa avidUre suriyAbhimukho
vAtaM
pivanto ekena pAdena aTThAsi... :
 In the Pali Jatakas, the story is called biLAra-jAtaka, but the deceitful
animal "who stood on one foot, his face turned towards the sun, drinking the
wind" is a jackal (sigAla-), not a cat, no cat appears in the text.
 This discrepancy between the title of the story and its contents could show
that the cat  had become such a symbol of fickleness that what should have
been
called "sigAla-jAtaka" was name "biLAla-jAtaka". Does anyone know if there are
other cases (in the various paJcatantra recensions for instance) of a (later?)
substitution of a cat to a(n original) jackal?

NB. To the proverbs already cited, add Nepalese :

"dUdh-ko sAchI birAlo" : "[Would you admit] the cat [as a] witness for
[stolen]
milk" ?

"birAlA-lAi jap garna sidrA-ko mAlA" could mean "What a cat needs to mutter
his
prayers is a rosary a rotten fish" (sidrA is "a particular kind of food
consisting of rotten fish"), and could link the (supposed) impurity of the cat
to the kind of food it is known to be particularly fond of.
(In puzkar zaMzer (ed.) : ukhAn TukkA-ko KoS)