TALES FROM THE PANCHATANTRA
ILLUSTRATED BY
 M.Sheela  
 
 
 

 
  Introduction
 
     The fable as a literary form, finds it's most charming, and perhaps, it's most ancient expression, in the Panchatantra Tales from India. Many scholars believe they were composed by Vishnuvarman in the Second Century B.C. in Kashmir.  Many rescensions of this work are available, of varied content. The original work is believed to have contained 84 stories presented in a sequence of five books. The following verse makes a beautiful introduction in Arthur Ryder's English translation :  
 One Vishnuvarman, shrewdly gleaning   
 All worldly wisdom's inner meaning,   
 In these five books the charm compresses,   
 Of all such books the world possesses.   

    Similar stories, and sometimes the same stories, are found in many different cultural traditions of the world, suggesting the universal appeal the fable as a vehicle of comment on the human foible. The Panchatantra, of course, adds a context and a flavour that is uniquely Indian. In it's structure, story is embedded in story, poetry is embedded in prose and the proverbs and wise sayings of the Indian millenia are embedded in both. And these narratives, coming from the cat and the fox, the mouse and the rabbit, the owl and the crow and other animals, big and small, have an ineffable charm all their own.  

    To capture this unique local flavour into an English translation, is of course quite difficult, and without doubt, Arthur Ryder's is among the best. Two of the Panchatantra stories are retold here in a free translation along with the original text in Sanskrit, essentially to attract new readers to the charms of the language, literary quality and wisdom that are to be found in the pages of the Panchatantra. 

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  THE STORY OF THE CROW AND THE OWL
 THE STORY OF THE WEAVER AND THE CARPENTER
 RETURN TO INDEX OF LITERARY AND DEVOTIONAL WORKS