Our cities, our dogs

Dogs have lived in close proximity to humans from the start of our recorded history, and with a little thoughtful planning, we can continue to coexist with them

- Nilanjana S. Roy

The dog has aged well. Out for a walk with a beloved human, that classic c-curved Desi Kutta tail raised jauntily, their happiness has radiated off the walls of Bhimbetka's caves for at least 12,000 years. Among the prehistoric and ancient cave paintings of these rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh, there are 41 featuring dogs—one on a leash, most free-roaming, another Canis familiaris caught in mid-stride, graceful, joyous.

It's hard to remember, in the middle of a moral panic, that the bond between humans and dogs is an old one, stretching all the way down the centuries to the 2nd or 3rd century BC. But perhaps it's worth it to go back that far, to the vivid figurines of fighting dogs or collared dogs from Harappa and Mohenjodaro, just to acknowledge that dogs have been around in human settlements right from the start of our recorded history.

In a 2008 book, Sarama and Her Children, Bibek Debroy, the economist, translator and expert on Indian mythology, made an impassioned plea for giving our homegrown desi kuttas the love and respect they deserved. "Imagine my surprise when I re-read the Rg Veda and discovered that dogs were used as herd dogs, hunting dogs and watchdogs, not to forget their being used as beasts of burden," he wrote. "As I re-read Hindu texts with this canine perspective in mind, I continually stumbled upon facts that I had not known. The more I read, the more I marvelled."

Sarama's story appears in the Rig Vedas