The Cat

[Richard Barz]

It's not Indian and not in Sanskrit, but there is a story involving the cat
as a byword for greed in the Masnavi of Jalal al-Din Rumi, translated by
R.A. Nicholson (London:1924-40).  There is a short Urdu version on pp.
42-45 of Urdu:Readings in Literary Urdu Prose by G.C. Narang (University of
Wisconsin, Madison:1968).
Richard Barz

>I'm presently working on a Tibetan text which is purported to be a
>translation from a Sanskrit original. In this text the cat is used as an
>example for a person of savage and devious mentality which is the way cats
>are still customarily viewed by Tibetans. Can someone tell me
>whether this conforms to an/the Indian attitude towards the cat. Has anyone
>written on the cat in Sanskrit literature. Thanks. Leonard Zwilling