Excerpts from B.N. Goswamy’s The Indian Cat: Stories, Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs

Here are two tales from the e book:

In the Karnataka area a cycle of tales is informed with relish, lauding the young Tenali Rama who lived within the occasions of the nice king of the Vijayanagara empire, Krishnadeva Raya, and with whom he had many encounters. Almost at all times, young Tenali had one thing to say to his monarch or remedy for him a scenario which others on the courtroom couldn’t. As on this story involving a cat. 

One day, when King Sri Krishnadeva Raya was sitting in his courtroom, he heard a commotion exterior the palace gates. He commanded the guards to search out out what it was. A guard got here with a person who recognized himself because the village head. The king requested him what the matter was. The man replied, ‘Your 57 majesty, our village is infested by rats. The rats are destroying our food grains and creating chaos in the village. Please save us.’

The king assured the village head by saying, ‘Fear not, my good man. I will consult with my courtiers and find a solution to your problem.’

King Sri Krishnadeva Raya ordered his ministers to reach at an answer. One of the ministers stood up and stated, ‘Your majesty, since cats eat rats, we can solve this rat menace by giving one cat to each household in the village.’

‘But how would the poor villagers feed the cats?’ requested one other minister.

The minister steered that they may give a cow together with a cat in order that the cats can feed on milk.

The king agreed to this resolution. All the villagers started feeding the cats with milk. And as days handed by, the cats turned wholesome and lazy.

Tenali Rama noticed this and thought, ‘There is something wrong with this solution.’

The subsequent day, Rama placed a sizzling bowl of milk in entrance of one of many cats. As quickly because the cat noticed the milk, it rushed to drink it and burned its tongue. The cat ran away and by no means touched milk once more.

That cat started to hunt, and the proprietor’s home was clear of rats.

One day, the king needed to assessment the scenario and ordered the villagers to get the cats to the courtroom. The villages complained that their cats haven’t been looking rats, besides the one proprietor whose cat stopped consuming milk due to Rama.

The king requested the cat’s proprietor, ‘Why is only your cat hunting rats? Haven’t you been feeding it with milk?’

Rama stepped up and stated, ‘Your majesty, it is not the owner’s fault. This cat refuses to drink milk.’

‘A cat that doesn’t drink milk? How is that attainable, Rama?’ requested the king.

‘Let me show it to you, your majesty,’ stated Rama and requested the guards to get a bowl of milk. As quickly because the cat noticed the bowl of milk, it ran away. The shocked king requested for the 58 cause behind it. Then, Rama stated, ‘Your majesty, I had given the cat a bowl of hot milk which burnt its tongue. From that day onwards, this cat never drank milk.’

‘But, why did you do so?’ enquired the king.

Rama replied, ‘Your majesty, cats would hunt the rats only when they are hungry. By drinking milk every day, the cats have become healthy and lazy and do not hunt for the rats. To show you this, I gave hot milk to one of the cats.’

The king understood the flaw within the resolution. He requested the ministers to search out one other resolution to assist remedy the issue. He additionally rewarded Rama handsomely. 

An oft-told story in India speaks of two cats who discovered a loaf of bread whereas looking collectively and went searching for a choose who would divide it between them equitably. The story ends nevertheless with each the cats getting cheated out of the bread utterly: a slightly uncommon prevalence as a result of each the cats emerge from it as naïve and trusting creatures. The origins of this story are typically believed to have been in India, someplace, in some textual content or the opposite, however it’s not simple to trace the supply down. Meanwhile, it figures in one in every of La Fontaine’s fables; the place La Fontaine acquired it from can also be not recorded even when one is aware of that, basically, he leaned closely upon historic Indian sources. In any case that is how the story runs.

Once upon a time, two cats, named Sehri and Mehri, have been passing by means of a avenue. Suddenly, they noticed a loaf of bread mendacity beneath a tree. Both the cats pounced and caught the loaf on the identical time. ‘It is mine! I saw it first,’ claimed Sehri. The different, Mehri, shouted, ‘I pounced on it first. It belongs to me.’

Finally, Sehri stated, ‘I’m hungry! Let us divide it in half and take one piece every.’ ‘Good idea!’ stated Mehri. ‘But which of us will divide it?’

A monkey sitting on the department of the tree had been watching this all alongside. ‘That loaf of bread looks good. I would like it for myself,’ he thought. He labored as much as the preventing cats. ‘My dear friends! Can I help you?’ stated the monkey.

The cats informed the monkey the story and requested. ‘Could you be the judge between us? Please divide this loaf for us?’

The monkey shortly agreed to be the choose. He took a scale, broke the bread making one piece larger than the opposite, and put them in reverse pans of the dimensions.

‘Oh no! So sorry! I will take a little bite of the bigger piece to make both equal,’ stated the monkey slyly, as he weighed. He took a chew from the larger piece. But, he took a giant chew. ‘Oh! Now it has become too small! I will just have to take a little bite from this piece now,’ stated the intelligent monkey. So the choose monkey took one other chew after which, one other!

Sehri and Mehri sat confused, as their bread acquired smaller and smaller. In minutes, the entire loaf was gone! Judge monkey stated, ‘Wow! It was really difficult to divide that loaf! But, I must be going now.’

Then he took his scale, jumped up the tree, and was gone.

‘If only we had not quarrelled among ourselves, we would not be hungry now,’ moaned the cats, sadly. 

The Indian Cat: Stories, Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs; B.N. Goswamy, Aleph Book Company, ₹1,299.

Excerpted with permission from Aleph Book Company