The bitch of the gods

Figurine of spotted dog, Pakistan, Indus Valley, Chanhu-Daro, about 2600–1900 BC. currently in the Museum of Fine Art Boston 

In Indian mythology we find these 3 sisters: 

Saranyu "Wet Monsoon Wind", peaks Jul/Aug 

Sarasvati, "Monsoon Flood", also peaks Jul/Aug

Sarama, "The Bitch Of The Gods"????

Monsoon peaks Jul/Aug, during "Dog days" when "Dog star", Sirius, rises with the sun...I talked about this in my post "Tishtrya"...

Interesting right? "The Bitch Of The Gods" helps Indra (the rain god) to recover his stolen cows (euphemism for rain clouds)...

BTW, Indra rides on a white elephant. Indian elephants mating season peaks in Jul/Aug, Dog Days, peak of the monsoon season...

I talked about this in my post "Musth"...

Also interesting is that "The Bitch Of The Gods" is the mother of the two dogs that belong to Yama (the god of death). The dogs which guard the entrance into the underworld...

This is super interesting...Pariah dogs, the old dog breeds, mate during autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct) starting from Jul/Aug, Dog Days. Gestation lasts 60+ days, so pups are born (Oct,Nov,Dec)...

I talked about this in my post "Dog days"...

Guess what happens in Oct/Nov? Mating season of water buffalos begins...Which is why water buffalo was used as an animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov...

Now water buffalo is a very interesting animal calendar marker, because it is found in both Mesopotamia and India, where because of the opposite climates, it has opposite meaning...

In Mesopotamia, Oct/Nov is the beginning of the rain season, so there, water buffalo is a positive symbol associated with water...I talked about this in my post "Buffalo licking jar"...

In India, Oct/Nov is the beginning of the dry season, so there, water buffalo is a negative symbol associated with drought. I talked about this in my post "Mahishasuramardini"... 

So...."The Bitch Of The Gods" which marks Jul/Aug, the beginning of the mating season of the old breed Pariah dogs, gives birth to the dogs of Yama, the god of death, who rides on a water buffalo, right at the beginning of the mating season of water buffalos...

And these dogs guard the entrance into the land of the dead...Which is in the places where we have wet (fertile) and dry (infertile) season, associated with the dry season, which in India begins in Oct/Nov...

Which is where we find Yama Puja, which marks the border between Kharif (wet) and Rabi (dry) season in India. 

I wrote about this in my post "Kharif and Rabi season" about this amazing Indus Valley civilisation vase which depicts these two seasons using animal calendar markers...

Interesting...

BTW, one of the two Yama's dogs was called "Sharvara" which means "Spotty" 🙂

That's it...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...