bashrc question

[S. Lawton]

Is .bashrc shell specific or is it a "generic" file ?
i apparently don't have one currently. 
When I open rvxt, this is on the top of the screen: 

BusyBox v0.60.5 (2004.09.18-02:04+0000) Built-in shell (ash)

Many of the common commands in bin and sbin are actually links to
BusyBox.
Is ash different from bash ? As this is a live cd, could this just be a
typographical error ?
What I really want to know is, if I make a bashrc would it be used, or
if ash is different, what file do I need to put in ~ to change the
command prompt ? 

I have never tried to edit bashrc before, because in other distros the
command prompt has always been of the form: login name current
directory, or something similar. Puppy has nothing but a prompt
character in a terminal, so I figured this would be a good time to try,
but the file's not there. 

-- 
Scott
Sylpheed 0.9.99
Puppy Linux 0.9.7 Live CD
http://www.goosee.com/puppy
linux 2.4.27 kernel
500MB Linux Rules !