Book Review - 'The Indian Cat: Stories, Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs' By BN Goswamy

The Indian Cat: Stories, Paintings, Poetry, and Proverbs By BN Goswamy

Published by Aleph

This is an unusual anthology since most readers are used to books on the royal Bengal tiger rather than the Indian cat. BN Goswamy has collated a series of writings, poems and miniatures on the subject which are intended to show how cats were regarded in India. There are tales from the Jatakas with the Buddha discoursing on his previous incarnations with the cat inevitably as the villain of the piece; there are Urdu writings including a translation of the Sutaka Saptarti and we read of how the Prophet Mohammed was saved from a snake by his cat Muezza. The god Indra transforms himself into a cat in the story of Ahalya – which is a different telling of the tale of confused virtue and Ahalya’s innocence.

The book centres on a series Mughul miniatures, Kalighat pats and paintings by the likes of Jamini Ray which feature cats, mainly court ladies and courtesans rescuing caged birds or allowing cats to sit in on gatherings with sleek composure. Goswamy drawing on his years of experience and explorations in art, provides detailed commentaries on each painting with the cat as an illustration framing his text which makes for a nice visual reference. 

These are followed by shorter sections that include a collection of cat poems by writers that range from Mir Taqi Mir to Vikram Seth, translated from languages as diverse as Urdu, Hindi. Persian, and Bengali. This is followed by shorter sections on Gleanings and the Right to Speak where the cat finds a voice. The book includes the famous saying from Hindi-Urdu “Hamari Billi, Hameen Se Miyaun” (My cat and she dares to mew back at me!) 

Cats had a less harrowing time in India than they did in medieval Europe where they were associated with witches and quite frequently burnt alive – certainly cats were allowed to coexist in different kinds of scenarios. BN Goswamy confesses that he is no cat lover, but the 90 year old professor was certainly a cat scholar - as he was a scholar of art history. The Indian Cat is dedicated to his son Apu, who succumbed to cancer a few months ago and Apu’s Persian cat MAX, whom his owner loved to describe as ‘a gentle poem on four feet’.

While the Indian Cat is certainly a collector’s item the cat lover might ask why are there no modern cat stories? There is Nilanjana S Roy’s The Wildings for example or Sunita Namjoshi’s tribute to her Burmese cat or even Kipling’s The Cat Who Walked By Himself. Also, why, for the most part is the cat shown in a bad light despite its useful task as a rat catcher extraordinaire?  This is the only quibbling point one can come up with but for an art historian in his 90’s, historicity might have seemed to be the more authoritative way to go – a provenance of the cat’s being in India through artistry and classical writings.

This, the last of BN Goswamy’s books, is bound to find a wide range of fans since it is a very different and very personal kind of book written by one of the acknowledged pioneers in Indian art history. It remains a tribute to the diversity of his scholarship and his love for his son.