It was a VERY Merry Xmas!

CourseEight · 1st January 2008, 09:20 PM

So, in part inspired by the interesting discussion about the use of dog symbology in the "AssadUllah Cartouche/Stamp" thread I've been looking around for various uses of the dog in Hinduism and on various Indo-Persian weapons, in an effort to better understand its usage on my bichwa. Unfortuantely I haven't been able to come up with much. Sarama is the only named dog I can find in Hindu mythology, and was apparently Indra's watchdog. Also mentioned are that dogs are associated with Yama, god of death, whcih is interesting because Elgood mentions that the loop shape of the bichwa handle is representative of a noose, one of the weapons of Vishnu but also the manner in which Yama snares souls. The wikipedia entry on Sarama says that "in later Hinduism, the dog became one of the most degraded animal," although I haven't found anything specific on that point. None of this directly explains the presence of the bird.

As an entirely alternative explanation of the decoration, it should be noted that the bird is attached through the handle via a pin, which has loosened and allows the bird to rotate. So if I turn the bird around, it could be that the dog is chasing the bird and what we have could be some sort of hunting scene. Its not often, though, that there are dogs involved in those scenes. The only ones I've found were on 19th C Qajar pieces:

http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photos.php?id=2484
http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photos.php?id=557

I think the bird is supposed to face away from the dog, since the oxidation under the bird (from where it would have been hard to polish) is darker on the dog side, and it would be harder to polish under the tail. Myself, I'm voting for the "hunting" interpretation, no doubt with some British influence; here is the cover of a British book with very similar styling of a bird and a dog.

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1st January 2008, 09:20 PM	#12
CourseEight Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Coral Springs, FL Posts: 222	So, in part inspired by the interesting discussion about the use of dog symbology in the "AssadUllah Cartouche/Stamp" thread I've been looking around for various uses of the dog in Hinduism and on various Indo-Persian weapons, in an effort to better understand its usage on my bichwa. Unfortuantely I haven't been able to come up with much. Sarama is the only named dog I can find in Hindu mythology, and was apparently Indra's watchdog. Also mentioned are that dogs are associated with Yama, god of death, whcih is interesting because Elgood mentions that the loop shape of the bichwa handle is representative of a noose, one of the weapons of Vishnu but also the manner in which Yama snares souls. The wikipedia entry on Sarama says that "in later Hinduism, the dog became one of the most degraded animal," although I haven't found anything specific on that point. None of this directly explains the presence of the bird. As an entirely alternative explanation of the decoration, it should be noted that the bird is attached through the handle via a pin, which has loosened and allows the bird to rotate. So if I turn the bird around, it could be that the dog is chasing the bird and what we have could be some sort of hunting scene. Its not often, though, that there are dogs involved in those scenes. The only ones I've found were on 19th C Qajar pieces: http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photos.php?id=2484 http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/photos.php?id=557 I think the bird is supposed to face away from the dog, since the oxidation under the bird (from where it would have been hard to polish) is darker on the dog side, and it would be harder to polish under the tail. Myself, I'm voting for the "hunting" interpretation, no doubt with some British influence; here is the cover of a British book with very similar styling of a bird and a dog.