About Panchatantra

About Panchatantra

Panchtantra, is a collection of five volumes of stories written by a teacher to help instruct the different aspects of kinghood for princes. The collection of stories in Pancha Tantra are a real treat for parents to help them in guiding them towards values in human life. Every story in Pancha Tantra is accompanied by a moral.

The background story of Panchtantra is :

Long ago in the kingdom of Mahilaropya, there lived a king who was ruling very ideally. He had three sons, who were not intelligent. The king was worried about the heir to the throne, as he knew that his sons were incapable of governing. He was desperate to find a good and knowleagable teacher for his sons who would teach them the scriptures and make them knowledgeable in a short time. His minister then pointed towards a skilled pundit, Vishnu Sharman. Vishnu sharman was old and the king was worried as to how the teacher could accomplish the teaching to his sons as he told that even an intelligent man takes more than twelve years to grasp all the elements of scriptures. Then Vishnu Sharman convinced the king that he would teach the princes about kingly conduct through a series of stories, which would be more effective than the scriptures. Thus Vishnu Sharman compiled the collection in five volumes termed as Panchtantra meant to serve as the guide for the princes to learn about kingly behaviour. Since then, Panchtantra became popular all over the world as children’s guide in solving problems of life.

The Panchatantra (‘Five Principles’) is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables (some 87 stories in all) in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma. It is based on older oral traditions, including “animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine”, including the Buddhist Jataka Tales. It is “certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India”. The Panchatantra is the best guide to enroot moral values in children since its each tale has a moral lesson in its end. The Panchtantra is a great book where plants and animals can speak and converse with human beings too.

There are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages and three-fourths of these languages are extra-Indian.

Apart from a short introduction — in which the author, Vishnu Sarma, is introduced as narrating the rest of the work to the princes — it consists of five parts. Each part contains a main story, called the frame story, which in turn contains several stories “emboxed” in it, as one character narrates a story to another.

The five books are called:

• Mitra-bheda: The Separation of Friends (The Lion and the Bull).
• Mitra-lābha or Mitra-samprāpti: The Gaining of Friends (The Dove, Crow, Mouse, Tortoise and Deer).
• Kākolūkīyam: Of Crows and Owls (War and Peace)..
• Labdhapraṇāśam: Loss Of Gains (The Monkey and the Crocodile).
• Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ: Ill-Considered Action / Rash deeds (The Brahman and the Mongoose).

1. Mitra-bheda, The Separation of Friends:- In the first book, a friendship arises between the lion Piṅgalaka, the king of the forest, and Sañjīvaka, a bull. Karataka (‘Horribly Howling’) and Damanaka (‘Victor’) are two jackals that are retainers to the lion king. Against Karataka’s advice, Damanaka breaks up the friendship between the lion and the bull out of jealousy. This book contains around thirty stories, mostly told by the two jackals. It is the longest of the five books, making up roughly 45% of the work’s length.

2. Mitra-samprāpti, The Gaining of Friends:- Seeing the favour the rat performed to free the dove (or pigeon) and her companions, a crow decides to befriend the rat, despite the rat’s initial objections. The storyline evolves as their friendship grows to include the turtle and the fawn. They collaborate to save the fawn when he is trapped, and later they work together to save the turtle, who falls in the trap. This makes up about 22% of the total length.

3. Kākolūkīyam, Of Crows and Owls:– Traditional enemies, the crows and the owls are at war. One of the crows pretends to be an outcast from his own group to gain entry into the rival owl group; he learns their secrets and vulnerabilities. He later summons his group of crows to set fire to all entrances to the cave where the owls live and the creatures suffocate to death. This is about 26% of the total length.

4. Labdhapraṇāśam, Loss Of Gains:- The story tells of a symbiotic relationship between the monkey and the crocodile. The crocodile risks the liaison by conspiring to acquire the heart of the monkey to heal his wife. When the monkey finds out the plan, he avoids the grim fate.

5. Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ, Hasty Action:- Main article: The Brahmin and the Mongoose. A Brahman leaves his child with a mongoose friend. When he returns, he sees blood on the mongoose’s mouth, and kills his friend, believing the animal killed his child. The Brahman discovers his child alive, and learns that the mongoose defended the child from a snake. He regrets having killed his friend.

This is the list of Panchatantra Stories with their Moral.