Picture: The cat is under the tusks of the big elephant. See below the enlarged cat.
Mahabalipuram near Chennai is famous for its monolithic rock temples. Pallava King Narasimha Varman was the architect of these beautiful rock cut temples and sculptures. 30 feet long panel of Arjunan penance or Bhageerathan penance is one of the main attractions. The sculptor has shown a sense of humour by adding a hypocritical cat in the serious penance of Arjuna/Bhageertha. This is called Rudraksha Cat. It is a phrase in Indian languages to ridicule the hypocritical saints.
The story of hypocritical cat is in Mahabharata (V-160). Tamil Didactic work Sirupanchamulam (stanza 95) also refers to this ascetic cat on the banks of Ganges. This is a folk tale known in different parts of India. The Mahabalipuram panel of rock cut sculptures show this cat with uplifted arms. The story of the cat is as follows:
With uplifted arms the cat performed severe austerities on the banks of the Ganges; and he was so pious and good that not only the birds worshipped it, but even the mice entrusted themselves to his protection. He declared himself willing to protect them, but said in consequence of his asceticism he was so weak that he couldn’t move. Therefore the mice must carry him to the river—where he devoured them and grew fatter and fatter. A wise mouse by name Killika followed the cat to the Ganges and let the secret out to other mice. They all kept away from the cat from that day and the cat had to move to another place.
There are even two or three Tamil proverbs regarding this hypocritical Rudraksha cat. It was named Rudraksha cat because the cat pretend to do prayer by rolling the Rudraksha beads. It must be a familiar painting in the ancient Tamilnadu. The Pallava architecture of Mahabalipuram belongs to seventh century CE.
One of the Sangam works, Paripatal (19-50), refers to the beautiful paintings in Tirupparankundram near Madurai. It was a painting that existed 2000 years ago. The painting shows Indra running in the guise of a cat after molesting Ahalya. May be this episode was the origin of the Rudraksha cat story.
Sirupanchamulam Stanza 95compares an ascetic eating meat with the cat on the banks of the river Ganges. So it is a familiar story throughout India.
Reinterpretaion of Mahabalipuram sculpture
Scholars were debating whether the sculpture panel was about Bhageeratha’s penance or Arjuna’s penance. Now that we know the cat story happened on the banks of Ganges from Mahabharata and Tamil works, it must be Bhageerathan’s story of bringing Ganges to the earth. ( Bhageeratha was one of the earliest engineers of India. He diverted the course of Ganges towards the Bay of Bengal and made India fertile (Please read my post GREAT ENGINEERS OF ANCIENT INDIA for more details).
