An
Indian work of
morally enlightening tales in
Sanskrit originating around 500 A.D.
The background of the tales is the
education of four
slovenly princes in the
kingdom of Mahilaropya about the finer aspects of
political science and morals by a
skilled
pundit called
VishnuSharman.
The literal meaning of Panchatantra is five tantras or
sciences
They are labelled as follows:
- The separation of friends. This is a story of a deep friendship between a lion and bull which is destroyed by two crafty jackals for their own ends.
- The acquisition of friends.
- The crows and the owls. A story about a feud between the crows and owls involving elements of espionage , double dealing and manipulation.
- Losing what has been gained.
- Thoughtless actions.
The stories are usually about
animals and each story has several sub-stories within it , usually told by the
characters in the story. The level of
story nesting goes upto 5 levels deep in a couple of cases!
A distinction that some of the tales from the Panchatantra have in contrast with with other similar tales like
Aesop's fables or the
Jataka tales is that , cunning and deceit are not shown as
a bad thing but as a
powerful skill used by rulers to acheive their ends. This
illustrates that the work is not just moral in nature but also
political.
The animals who feature in the stories , are used in an
allegorical way , representing not just talking animals but certain
stereotypical classes of
people in
society.
The various
translations and
derived works do little
justice to the teachings and
concentrate more on the story. In the original sanskrit version , the story plays a minor part and the
lectures given by the various characters are more prominent. Also some of the stories are not covered in any
translation that has been published.
An excellent link for some of the stories is http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/panchatantra.html.
In India ,
Anant Pai created a revolution in the comic book industry by creating a comic called
Amar Chitra Katha (translates to
Eternal Picture Tale) which covered The Panchatantra , The
Mahabharata , The
Ramayana and almost every Indian mythological and
folk tale.
A whole generation of kids have been raised on these comics which still provide a more healthy reading diet than the plethora of psychedelic super-hero comics by
Marvel Comics et al.