Feline fables in Indian culture

There are Buddhist fables from the Jatakas, Islamic tales of cats beloved of the Prophet and his followers, references to them in Sanskrit, Prakrit and Pali, and the Egyptian deification

The Indian Cat: Stories Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs

Author: B N Goswamy

Publisher: Aleph

Price: Rs 1,299   Pages: 240

The author, who passed away recently, was universally acknowledged as one of the leading authorities on Indian art. This, the last book he ever wrote, is a departure from his usual oeuvre. It is an examination of the feline factor —the cat motif — that runs through art and literature in our syncre–tistic nation.
 

Although Professor BN Goswamy claims he wasn’t extraordinarily fond of cats as a species, he was obviously more enamoured of them than he was willing to admit. In his preface he