Guest guest Posted July 13, 2004 Report Share Posted July 13, 2004 Does Ganesh's rat have a name? Mail is new and improved - Check it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 14, 2004 Report Share Posted July 14, 2004 INDOLOGY, Jan Brzezinski <jankbrz@Y...> wrote: > Does Ganesh's rat have a name? A friend of mine found this on a very interesting site: --begin-- The mount of Ganesh is most commonly called Mooshika, "Little Hoarder"; and occasionally Mooshikam, Minjur or Akhu. Accounts vary as to whether "Mooshika" is a personal name or a descriptive term ("mousie" - really), and what sex he/she is, though male seems to be the more usual choice - some pictures show him complete with un-rattily tiny testicles. Accounts also vary as to whether Mooshika is a rat or a mouse (but then like the Romans Indians may well regard the ship rat as just a big mouse, which is pretty-much what it is); and, if a rat, whether he is a Norway, ship or bandicoot (large murines of genus Nesokia, not related to the marsupial bandicoots of Australia) rat. Some sources even say that the mount of Ganesh is more properly a shrew: but certainly it's normally nowadays believed to be a rat, or sometimes a mouse. --end-- http://members.madasafish.com/~cj_whitehound/Rats_Nest/Ship_Rats/Deshn ok_text.htm#tradition On this site, which he also found, I was a bit disillusioned to learn that perhaps Musika is actually better translated as Indian Hairy Footed Gerbil than as mouse: http://centralpets.com/pages/critterpages/mammals/rodents/ROD3485.shtm l Phillip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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