In a famous Indian fable in the Panchatantra, an ancient collection of animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose from 200 BCE-300CE, the domestic cat is portrayed as sly, underhand and hypocritical. The fable which I describe below is immortalised in a famous bas relief at Mahabalipuram in southeastern India, on the coast.
The cat in the bas relief stands on his hind legs with arms extended towards heaven, in a parody of the posture of a pious ascetic (disciplined, religious person). The cat is an imitation of a holy man with plump mice to his right.
The fable
A partridge and a hare go to consult with a neighbouring cat. The cat lives as a hermit with an excellent reputation for holiness and compassion.
When they approach him, the cat sanctimoniously recites sayings about the importance of righteousness and the evil of harming other creatures including humans.
They trust the cat and beg him to settle a dispute between them. The cat responds by asking them to come closer as he is old and has poor hearing. He wants to fully understand their story.
They come closer. When near him, he pounces and kills them.
The story is told all over India according to Katharine M Rogers in her book ‘Cat’. And, as mentioned, it is figuratively carved into rock as a bas relief in Mahabalipuram.
I wonder if this ancient story, an animal fable, has had any impact on the relationship between Indians living in India over about 2,000 years? The bas relief was constructed in 7th-8th century and is called the ‘Descent of the Ganges or Arjuna’s Penance’. It is in Tamil Nadu, India.
The fable certainly does not do the domestic cat any favours. It adds to the already dubious reputation in many developing countries of being the harbinger of evil, a superstition harking back to the Middle Ages.
Notes (and below are some more pages on India and cats): (1) Fable: a short story, typically with animals as characters, conveying a moral, and (2) Bas relief: a sculptural relief into limestone on this occasion (believed) in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight.
