Chapter 18.1 - Popular Tales and Fables in Sanskrit literature

"Folklore is the science which seeks to explain the meaning of the peasant and the local customs". Thus observes Henderson in his Folk-tales of Nations. The folk-tales have their origin in popular fancy. The unsophisticated mind weaves stories around princes and princesses of the fairy-land. It is with these that the grandma lulls her young ones to sleep while they insist: kah de dadi ek kahani woh raja tha ya rani "Tell O grandma the story. Was that one a king or a queen." " Such stories might have been told from age to age. They are, therefore, a valuable source for the reconstruction of the history of popular beliefs, customs and manners and superstitions. It is in these that the simple folk have expressed their first imaginings of their minds. It is certainly necessary for students of history to delve deep into these and find out the invaluable treasure embedded in these. The first wanderings of the mind in the unknown realms of great pomp and pageantry transport us to a world where everything looks enchanting. To quote Macdonell. "the gods, the magic, the omens ares brought to play.

Therefore folklore gives a good material for the study of the religion, superstition and popular beliefs." Another branch of literature connected with tales and fables is beast-fable where human notions and emotions are attributed to animals and they are made to behave exactly like humans beings, ostensibly for the purpose of inculcating morality. The Jatakas are a case in point. By means of the beast-fable they want to serve their end, viz., to propagate the Buddhist faith. But the first great work which is an amalgam of simple fables is the Pancatantra. The work seems to have incorporated into it a mass of such floating material and handed that to us. The Pancatantra is perhaps the most popular work of its kind. Its popularity can be judged from the fact that it has been translated into practically every language of the world and has influenced the fairy-tale literature of many of its countries. The earliest translation of the Pancatantra was attempted in Pahlavi during the Sassanian period at the instance of Khusru Anushirwan (521-579 A.D.). The Syrian version was later prepared in 570 A.D. The Arabic translation was prepared by an Iranian scholar Ibn-e-Muquffa' who named it as Kalila Damana (Karataka and Damanaka) after the names of two jackals in the first Book of the original text. This translation served as the base for later translations. Rudaki, the famous Persian poet, translated it in beautiful Persian poetry. Nasrullah, a writer of the Gaznavi period rendered it into Persian prose that is considered to be the most remarkable translation of the work. The Anwar-e-Soheli of Mulla Wai'z Hussain Kashifi and A'yae-e-Danesh of Abul Fazl are two other translations of importance. The Pancakhyana, a version in Sanskrit of it was put in Persian by Khaliqdad Abbasi. In recent times one more translation of it was prepared by Indu Shekhar that has been published from Tehran. "The original collection of Pancatantra stories numbered about eighty-four. But in their end-less travel in India and abroad, these underwent many changes not only in their form,

colour and setting, but also in their total numerical strength. One such 'maimed and transformed ' version of the Pancatantra was among the earliest printed books in Europe, in the German language. An earlier version, also garbled, in the English language, came from Caxton's printing press. But until almost a century and a half ago no authorized or literal translation of the work existed in any European language. For the first time in 1859 Theodor Benfey, the noted German Sanskrit scholar, provided a literal and faithful translation in the German language, of the Kashmirian recension of the Pancatantra collection-a recension that has been recognized by Oriental scholars as the most authoritative in existence. Two English translations of it were made, the first in 1924 by Stanley Rice and the second by Arthur W. Ryder. Of these two Ryder's translation is better. As a matter of fact, it is the best according to experts, in any foreign language. The work starts with introduction which explains as to how and why the work came to be created. It begins with an account of a king named Amarasakti, the powerful ruler of Mahilaropya in the southern country who had three sons of the names of Bahusakti, Ugrasakti and Anantasakti, all three supreme blockheads. Noticing them to be hostile to education the king summoned his counsellors and asked them to find a way to make them wise, that being his greatest worry. One of the counsellors said that it takes twelve years to learn grammar and when it is mastered is one able to master the books on religion and practical life. To this another of the counsellors said that the duration of life being limited some kind of epitome may have to be devised to awaken intelligence. He suggested that a Brahmana of the name of Visnusarman who has reputation of competence in numerous sciences may be contacted and the princes b be entrusted to him. He will make them, wise. The Brahmana was summoned. The king placed his request before him and offered him a hundred land grants were he to fulfil his desire. Brushing

aside the offer, he being not of the type to trade off knowledge for land-grant and expressing his disinclination for any material gain, he having reached the ripe old age of eighty years when he had lost attraction for worldly objects, he promised to make the princes intelligent. He took the princes with him, made them learn the Pancatantra he had composed and returned the princes intelligent and wise. The word tantra in the title of the work means, perhaps, a book or chapter. Pancatantra has, as is evident from its name, five Books, namely, Mitrabheda, Mitraprapti, Sandhivigraha, Labdhapranasa and Apariksitakaraka. Each is a narrative unit in itself but altogether they form a perfect whole fitted into the framework of introduction that makes the wise Brahmana Visnusarman, the author of the work, to impart practical knowledge to young princes in the manner of telling beastfables and thus making the dry subject interesting for them who would otherwise refuse to study anything serious. In the title Tantrakhyayika, another version of the Pancatantra, the word tantra means to suggest a work on Polity and some scholars are inclined to regard on that basis the word tantra in Pancatantra also to mean the same. The various important recensions of the Pancatantra are classified into the following main groups: 1. Pahlavi version which is derived from the old Syrian and Arabic versions. It was to this source that Pancatantra in somewhat modified form was introduced to Europe. the 2. North-western recension from which the text was incorporated into the north-western Sanskrit versions of Gunadhya's Brhatkatha, namely, Brhatkathamanjari and the Kathasaritsagara of Ksemendra and Somadeva respectively (11 th cen. A.D.). 2. The common lost source of the Kashmirian version CC-0. Prof. Saty Tantrakhyayika and two other versions, the Textus ection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

Simplicior and the Textus Ornatior called the Pancakhyana of Purnabhadra. 3. The common lost source of southern Pancatantra, the Nepalese version and the Hitopadesa. The versions of the Pancatantra that have been enumerated clearly bring out the fact that the original framework of the work was completely transformed in course of time. Thanks to the unremitting efforts of J. Hertel, we have now a text that may be considered the common pool from which the later writers drew their texts to which they added and which they embellished in their own way. The Tantrakhyayika is perhaps the oldest and the most faithful version. The north-western original of Ksemendra and Somadeva must have been made later. The text incorporated in the Brhatkathamanjari suffers from too much brevity and that in the Kathasaritsagara from the interruption of sequence by the introduction of extraneous tales. Even then both are fairly faithful. In the Simplicior and Ornatior texts there is a good deal of reshuffling of stories and intrusion of extraneous matter. The Hitopadesa is practically an independent work containing not five but only four Books by one Narayana whose patron was Dharmacandra who must have lived before 1373 A.D. which is the date of one of the manuscripts of the work. The writer simplifies stories derived in the main from the Pancatantra and by drawing upon an unknown source considerably alters, reshapes and remodels them and inserts large selections of didactic matter from the Kamandakiya Nitisara. The introduction makes the Pancatantra the vehicle for training in the science of Polity. The introduction may or may not be authentic but this much is certain that the author always has the object of instruction in Polity in view though it is latent and not many times brought to surface. Visnusarman or whoever was the author, is an expert story-teller who does not let the interest flag by a marathon of political maxims culled from learned treatises like the Arthasastra and the Sukamanitisara. CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection,

In him are blended both a story-teller and a political teacher and the combination is rather exquisite. The political teacher throughout, with certain exceptions, remains in the background and does not let himself intrude upon the former. The storyteller with his seemingly inexhaustible or endless train of Karataka-Damanaka stories goes along happily till he reaches a mile-stone. There the political teacher relinquishes his hidden and recites some verses that contain profound political appearance wisdom. The author, in the words of S.K. De, "is a master of narrative, as well as a perfect man of the world, never deviating from an attitude of detached observation and often possessed of a considerable fund of wit and humour veiled under his pedagogic seriousness." If he makes his animals talk, he makes them talk well and the frankly fictitious disguise of the Fabian eminently suits the muse and the amusing manner. Some of the gnomic verses found at the end of the story as also those figuring here and there give a sententious summary of worldly wisdom and impressive utterance to every ordinary but essential fact of life. It is not without reason that the work enjoyed and still enjoys unrivalled popularity as a story-book in so many different times and climes. It may be worthwhile here to reproduce one or two of its stories to form a visual impression of what it is like. First may be taken up the story of the two jackals Karataka and Damanaka which forms the subject matter of Book I. It had so appealed to the Iranian scholar Ibn-e-Muqqaffa that he had named his translation of the entire work, as pointed out earlier, after it: Kalila Damana. Book I is titled Mitrabheda, the Separation of Friends. This is sought to be illustrated by the story of two jackals of above names who brought about estrangement among the two, one a lion, Pingalaka and the other a bull, Sanjivaka having first worked out their friendship. As the story goes, a merchant of the name of Vardhamanaka, a resident of the city Mahilaropya in the southern country thought of adding to his wealth and with

that idea in view left for the city of Mathura for trade. He put his ware in a cart to be drawn by two bulls Sanjivaka and Nandaka. On the way Sanjivaka partly due to the heavy weight and partly due to the earth having turned muddy due to cascade of water sank and in spite of the best of the efforts of the driver could not move. The driver reported the matter to the merchant who proceeded on leaving a few of his retinue to take care of the bull. Were he to come out of the mud, they were to look after him. Were he to die they were to perform his last rites. Not willing to risk their life in the dreary forest, the attendants falsely reported to the merchant that the bull had died. The merchant performed the necessary rituals and moved on. As fate willed it, the bull came out of the mud and helping himself to the full with the green grass growing on the banks of the Yamuna got reinvigorated with the mist of spray of cascades, tearing every day tops of ant-hills with goring horns and frisking like an elephant and giving out a loud roar. One day a lion of the name of Pingalaka came to the riverbank for water. He heard the loud sound the kind of which he had not heard before. He along with the retinue sat under a tree and did not go to the river-bank for water thinking that the being that could produce such a sound must also be very strong. The lion, the king, had two ministers, the jackals, Karataka and Damanaka who had been divested of their portfolio by him. One of them, Damanaka noticed the strange behaviour of the lion and much against the protestations of his companion Karataka as to they have no business to get interested in matters of no concern to them that could well cause them harm. With the illustration of the story of the peg-pulling monkey wherein it leaving the herd descending on a forest pulled a peg inserted in a log being sawn by carpenters who had retired for a while and lost his life with his private parts having been crushed by falling in the aperture, went to the lion and through his clever talk was able to get his mind out. He volunteered CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhired to get to the other being

(the bull) and bring him to the lion. He brought the bull to the lion and made them friends winning back the position of the ministership for himself and his companion Karataka. Noticing after some time the lion to be too much attached to the bull to the point of not going out even for hunting, thereby making his retinue starve, he thought of driving a wedge between the two which finally leads to the slaying of the bull which the lion repents when he sees his blood-stained paws but is consoled by Damanaka who retains his premiership. In this framework of two jackals, particularly Damanaka, first arranging for the friendship and then the split are thrown in as many as twenty fables, one following the other. The first one of the monkey pulling out the peg illustrating the harmfulness in engaging in an activity of no concern to one has already been reproduced. When Damanaka even against the advice of Karataka approaches the lion who is sitting under a tree with his group disconsolate and winning his confidence with sweet talk is able to find out from him about his worry at the possible superior strength of the prodigious being inferable from his loud bellow unheard of before and his idea of leaving the forest, and advises him to reinforce his resolution and not develop fear from a mere sound, he, in justification of his view cites an old saying which goes thus I thought it was full Of fat: I crept within And there I did not find a thing Except some wood and skin. To illustrate this he starts telling a story of a jackal who while moving about in search of food happened to hear a loud sound. Getting scared, he, following the sound got to a drum. He was happy to see such a huge 'being' the interior of whom , he thought, must be full of lots of flesh, marrow and blood. He tore a part of it and entered into it. What he found there was only the wood and the skin. Damanaka then offers to go out and see that Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

loud roar with his own eyes and being who was giving promises to the lion to bring that one to him. Going out he finds a bull sending out loud bellows. Approaching him he reprimands him for such behaviour and tells him that Pingalaka, the lion sitting under the fig tree, has called him. Mortally afraid, the bull beseeches Damanaka to take him to the lion, if he has to, but in such a way that he does no harm to him. Damanaka leaving him to wait there while approaching the lion tells him that he is not an ordinary bull but the vehicle of Lord Siva. He will come to him under his persuasion on the condition that he has no fear from him (the lion) to which the lion agrees with the stipulation that he in turn should have no fear from him. Approaching the bull Damanaka tells him to go to the lion in full confidence and that he should behave with him respectfully after getting into his (the lion's) favour. One not doing so meets the fate of Dantila. From here starts the story of Dantila which is the third story within the main story. There was a merchant called Dantila in the city of Vardhamana who handled the royal business so admirably that he came to enjoy the royal patronage in full. Once at the marriage of his daughter while all had had been fed and presented with gifts, he, on noticing a sweeper of the name of Gorambha occupying a seat not meant for him turned him out unceremoniously. Nursing a grievance in his mind since then he, the sweeper, while sweeping the floor near the king's bed blurted out, while the king was half asleep, that how conceited Dantila has become that he has the temerity to embrace the queen. The king hears these words. He enquires of the sweeper about what he had said. The sweeper tells him that the entire previous night he had not had any sleep, engaged he had been in the game of dice. He was feeling sleepy and does not know what he had said. But the seed of suspicion had well been sown in the mind of the king and he as a consequence divests Dantila of all royal duties with his entry barred in the palace The latter in spite of hard thinkingy was notorable to

sweeper Glimpses of History of Sanskrit Literature / 331 make out the reason of his fall from royal grace. One day the while addressing the door-keepers with a loud laugh told them not to stop Dantila from entering the palace, When Dantila heard this, he realized that it was he who had played the mischief. He called him to his residence and gave him rich presents that satisfied him immensely. The next morning when he was sweeping the floor near the king's bed he again blurted out: What a stateness! When the king sits at stool he eats cucumber. The king had never done so. When enquired, the sweeper tells him that the entire previous night he had been gambling. He was feeling sleepy. He does not know what he had said. The king now realized that what he had said earlier must also be as untrue as this was. He reinstated Dantila to his earlier position. Sanjivaka promises Damanaka to act as Damanaka had told him and tells him his entire story as to how he had been caught up in mud from where he had a providential escape. With Pingalaka, the lion, and Sanjivaka, the bull, in deep friendship the lion would not go for hunting with the result that all beings dependent upon the lion started deserting him. Stricken with hunger Karataka and Damanaka had counsel among themselves, they realizing that it was Sanjivaka who was having the primacy of position and they have been reduced to inferior position. Karataka tells Damanaka to enlighten the master to take to the correct course even if he were not seeking his advice. Damanaka agrees with him and concedes that it was his fault that he had introduced the grass-eater (the bull Sanjivaka) to the lion. It is through one's own fault that one meets with the nemesis as did a jackal in a fight with a ram, the monk Asadhabhuti through a pupil and a lady messenger through a weaver. Then follow the three stories (i) of a foolish monk who took a thief as a pupil and had the cash stolen, (ii) of the jackal who ran in between two butting rams and (iii) a procuress who took the place of a weaver's wife in order to further her intrigue with a patron and suffered in consequence the loss of her nose.

According to Damanaka Sanjivaka has got to be detached from Pingalaka. To Karataka's query as to how that could be accomplished Damanaka's answer is that where brute force shall fail, a shrewd device shall prevail as was the case with a crow-hen who had all her chicks devoured by a snake who was living at the base of a tree which served as the nest of the crow couple. Out of depression they approached a friend of theirs, a jackal, who told them a way out of the difficulty for, according to him, the way an enemy can be vanquished by a device, he cannot be done so by weapons and then he told them the story of a heron and a crab where a crab was able to destroy a heron. As the story which is the seventh one in the midst of the big one goes, a heron getting old and not able to kill fish was shedding tears on the bank of a big pond to which he had taken resort. A crab out of sympathy approached him and enquired of him the cause of his distress. The heron told him that he had heard from astrologers that a twelve-year long drought was going to strike that would dry up the pond which will finish off all its inhabitants, a calamity difficult for him to withstand, he having spent his life-time with them. As to the query of the crab as to what could be done under the circumstances, the heron said that he had overheard some of the fishermen passing by the pond that there was another pond with deep waters to which they were repairing bypassing this one. In that case he can offer himself to carry the aquatic animals inhabiting this pond on his back to the other pond where they could live happily. As the crab conveyed this to other beings they all jumped at the idea and wanted to be the first to be carried to the other pond. The heron started carrying them one by one and putting them on a stone slab not far from the other pond made a feast of them and thus sustained himself. One day a crab approached him and told him that while he had been carrying others why was it that he was not kind to him. The heron tired of eating the flesh of the fish welcomed the idea in that it could provide him the flesh of a different kind of that CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection,

of crab, for a change. He carried the crab on his back and the latter noticing a heap of bones on a rock understood everything and before he could do to him what he had been doing to others dug his nippers into him and cut off his head which he carried back to the old pond explaining to the curious beings gathered round him what the treacherous heron had been doing all along. The jackal suggests to the crow to go a capital city where lives a great monarch. There he should pick up a gold chain of the king or the minister who is off his guard and throw it in the hollow of the serpent that will lead to his killing for its recovery. Following this advice the crow couple flew off. The female crow of them saw a pond and noticed the ladies of the royal harem engaged in water sports having put off all their gold ornaments. The female crow picked up a gold chain out of them and flew off to the tree which was her habitat and threw it in the hole of the serpent. The chamberlain and others following her came upon that hollow and noticing a big black cobra there clubbed him to death and recovered the chain. With the cobra dead, the crow couple lived on happily thereafter. That is why said Damanaka, there is nothing impossible of achievement for the wise. This is how even a mere hare felled a proud lion. As the story goes and that is the eighth one in the series-there lived a lion of the name of Bhasuraka in a forest who feeling proud of his great strength went on killing all sorts of animals. The remaining ones came to him one day and told him to enter into an agreement with them in that they would supply him one animal everyday by which he should also be satisfied and they also would not suffer total extinction to which the former agreed. One day it was the turn of a hare who moving rather slowly, unwilling as he was, left for the lion. On the way he saw a well. As he passed over it, he saw his reflection in it. Therein he saw a ray of hope for himself. As the time was passing by, the lion became restless. As he was thinking of destroying all the animals the following day for breach of the agreement, there USA

appeared before him the hare which infuriated him further in that, for one he had come late and for the other, he was too small to satisfy his hunger. When asked, as to why he took so long, the hare said that as he was coming to him with four other hares-he being small, the animals had sent the five of us to him he met on the way another lion who accosted him and when told that he with four others of the species was leaving to a lion as per an agreement, he said that it was he who was the master of the forest and the lion to whom they were going was a thief. If he is the king, leave the four among you as the deposit with him, and bring that lion to his presence. The test of valour would prove as to who among them was the king. He will then devour all of them. Hearing this Bhasuraka left with the hare to meet the other fake lion in a combat. The hare took him to the well telling him that the other lion was in a fortress. Bhasuraka looked into the well, and seeing his reflection there and taking it to be the other lion gave out a roar which returned with a double sound through an echo. With this he jumped into it to engage the other one in a combat and lost his life with the hare and all other animals feeling relieved. This example should make it clear, Damanaka tells Karataka, that strength lies in wisdom. If Karataka were to agree, he would go and cause a rift between the lion and the bull. With the good wishes of Karataka Damanaka leaves for his mission. Finding Pingalaka alone he confided in him that Sanjivaka was hostile to the former. He had told him that he had discovered the strength and otherwise of him (the lion) and that he would kill him and would become the overlord of all animals with him (Damanaka) as the minister. Pingalaka is unable to persuade himself to believe that Sanjivaka of all who is as dear an attendant to him as his very life should nurse hostile feelings for him. He is disinclined to go against him even though he were inimical to him to which Damanaka points out that it is against the royal conduct. Moreover, with friendship with him he has begun heglecting royal duties like Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA,

hunting leading to disaffection among the subjects. That way also he would come to naught. That is why the wise avoid association with the lowly. He should avoid what happened to a lice. He then tells the story-the ninth one-of a lice which was having a good time keeping herself concealed in the two sheets of the bed of a king helping herself with his blood after the king would fall asleep. One day a bug approached her with the request to allow him to be with her to taste the sweet blood of the king, that taste being different from the taste of all other kinds of blood he had been tasting earlier. The lice told him to be patient and bite the king after he had gone to sleep as she had been doing. As the king lay on the bed and was yet to fall to sleep, the bug on account of his fickle nature could not resist and stung the king. Since he had not fallen asleep, he ordered the royal attendants to look for the insect that played the mischief. The bug was quick enough to enter into the crevice of the bed while the lice with her slow movement could not do so. The attendants saw the lice and killed her with the bug ensconced safe in the crevice. It is therefore imperative that one should not extend patronage to one whose background one does not know. So his advice to him was that he should finish off the bull. One who casts away his own people and owns others meets with death as the fool Candarava. And then follows the story-the tenth one of a jackal named Candarava who out of hunger entered into a city where the dogs began to hound him and bite him with their sharp teeth. Out of fear for his life he entered into the house of a washer-man which had a big vessel full of indigo water and fell into it. When out of it he had turned blue. When repairing to the forest all its animals, the tigers, the bears, the leopards began to avoid him thinking him to be a strange animal with great prowess. They accepted him as their king, he proclaiming to have been sent to the earth by the Creator himself and assigned the duty of ruling over the animals. He assigned high positions, ministerships, etc, to other animals like by Foundation USA

lions, leopards and so on while he unceremoniously shooed away the jackals, the animals of his own species. One day he happened to hear them howling and not able to resist started howling himself. The other animals discovering him to be a jackal pounced upon him and killed him. Persisting still with softness for Sanjivaka, Pingalaka asks Damanaka as to what is the proof that Sanjivaka nurses ill-feeling for him. Damanaka tells him that the next morning when he would find him looking fiercely with blood-red face, he would himself come to know. Having said that, he went to Sanjivaka and told him that Pingalaka had evil designs towards him. He had told him in secret that the next morning he would kill Sanjivaka and would satisfy all the animals after a long time. When Sanjivaka heard this, he fell unconscious. He rued his indiscretion in cultivating friendship with one far superior to him in might. He inferred that he (Pingalaka) would have been provoked by those close to him unable to bear his patronage to him and would in no case be favourably disposed towards him, however pacified. One cannot live among the evil-minded; however small they may be; they would take to some other plea and would kill as was done by the crows in the case of a camel. And then follows the story, the eleventh one. There lived a lion of the name of Madotkata in a forest who had other beings like a tiger, a crow and a jackal as the retinue. Once they noticed a camel separated from his herd. The lion enquired of the retinue as to what kind of animal he was with no idea of his strength. The crow said that he was a village camel and fit for him to be killed. The lion said that he would not kill the being who has come to him. The retinue should bring him to him after assuring him of safety. To the camel brought to him he said that he need not go back to the village and undergo again the trouble of carrying load. He would better stay in the forest itself helping himself to the full with the velvety green grass. One day the lion had a fight with can elephant and was badly injured by him with heavy blows of

tusk with no strength left in him to move about and kill animals with the result that his retinue had to go hungry. He then asked them to go out in search of an animal, bring him unto him so that he could kill him even in the bad state in which he was and could satisfy them. The crow went out and coming back said that he had not been able to find one. He offered himself for slaughter but then he was too small for others to serve as food. The tiger then offered himself but then he was not acceptable, he being of the similar species. So also was not the jackal for that very reason. Seeing every one of them offering himself, the camel thought that he should also follow suit. The lion consenting, the jackal etc. tore him apart and feasted themselves with his flesh. Sanjivaka enquired of Damanaka as a friend as to how he should proceed under the circumstances. He did not agree to Damanaka's suggestion that he should move to some other place on the ground that it would not be possible with his master angry with him and he not having any safe haven even elsewhere. According to him to fight with the lion (Pingalaka) was the only way out. This Damanaka did not seem to like. It would be a great tragedy if he (bull) were to strike the master, the lion, with his sharp horns. It is better, therefore, if he were to go to another place. He consequently advised the bull accordingly telling him inter alia that there is a big contrast in the fight between the master and the servant. It is therefore advisable for a servant to make peace with the master and not to provoke him. One who without assessing the strength of the enemy enters in to a fight with him, is subdued as was the Tittibha (a kind of bird) by the ocean. The story, the twelfth one is that a Tittibha lived in a corner of the shore of an ocean. When the female Tittibha was about to lay eggs, she asked her husband to take her to a safe place to which the husband said that the shore of an ocean being a pleasant place is the proper place for laying eggs to which she objected by saying that on the full moon's night billows would appear in the ocean that may draw unto them even the intoxicated

elephants, so he should look for a place at a distance. The husband laughed out the female's objection saying how could an ocean dare to take away the eggs. The ocean incensed at the arrogance of the insignificant bird swept away the eggs. The female one censured her companion for this and said one who does not listen to the words of one's well-wishers comes to naught like a turtle slipped from a piece of wood. The story, the thirteenth one-is: There lived in a pond a turtle who had two ganders as his friends. Once when there appeared draught and the pond was anything but dried up, he suggested to his friends, the ganders, to arrange for a rope and a piece of wood, put him on the wood and put each edge of the rope in each of their beaks and fly off with him in that condition to another pond with more quantity of water. They agreed to do so provided he were to keep his mouth shut. While he was being carried like this the people of a city below cried out in surprise as to what a circular thing it was that was being carried through the sky. Hearing this, the turtle spoke out: What a hullabaloo below. When he had uttered this half the sentence, he fell down and was cut into pieces by the city-dwellers. That is why said the female one that she had been telling him to follow the words of the wellwishers. One has to arrange things well beforehand. One who provides for what is yet to come and one who sets things on the spur of the moment, prosper while one who believes in let something happen, we will see what can be done then perishes. This is the story, the fourteenth one, of three fish. One, the Forethought, leaves the pond before the fishermen spread their net, the second, the Foresight one, cuts through the thread of the net and escapes while Come-what-will is caught. The male one insists on the female one acting as he bids. The ocean takes away the eggs but the bird successfully invokes through Garuda, Visnu's aid, and the ocean on pain of an assault by fire gives back the eggs, thus defeating the ocean even ! The bull still CC-0. insisting on a fighty Damanaka tells find the story, the fifteenth,

of a bird who would not take a telling and insisted on explaining to a foolish monkey that he could not warm himself by the light of a glowworm and so irritated the monkey that he killed him. All the words of Damanaka have no effect on Sanjivaka, he having made up his mind to fight the lion Pangalaka. He sat at a distance from him without the normal courtesies. Pingalaka seeing him behaving that way believed in the words of Damanaka and pounced upon him and dug his nails into his back while Sanjivaka tore into his stomach with both of them shedding blood. Seeing all this Karataka admonished Damanaka about the evil he had wrought. If the master were to die, it would be a great tragedy. Even Sanjivaka's death would not be good. What can be achieved with peace need not be achieved through war. He has not acted as a good minister should. But then there is no point in giving him even good advice. That may harm the one who tenders it as it did in the case of a bird who advised the monkeys blowing carats taking them to be charcoal to warm themselves that they should move to a windless place or a cave or a mountain crevice. One among them taking umbrage at his words jumped up and killed him. It is common that a wicked being gladdened at the adversity of another does not notice his own destruction. As it happened in the case of Dharmabuddhi and Papabuddhi, the Honest-wit and Evil-wit, the nineteenth story. Both set out to earn money abroad. To keep it safe they bury it together. The Evil-wit digs it up secretly. A dispute arises between the two. The Evil-wit in the court says that it is the other one who has stolen it and says that the tree will prove that. When it is arranged to go to the tree he asks his father to conceal himself in its hollow and pretend to be its spirit. The father remonstrates -the twentieth story-as to how a foolish heron induced a mongoose which devoured her young ones only to find that the mongooses are the connoisseurs of young birds. However, he agrees to do the son's bidding and declares from the hollow of the tree that the Honest-wit is the thief. This CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Collection, New Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation LISA infuriates the Honest-wit who then sets the tree on fire from

where comes out a half-burnt father of Evil-wit declaring that it was his son who had stolen the money and with these words falling dead. Continuing with his reproach Karataka says that when he brings the master to that state, what would happen to beings like him (Karataka). So he should avoid his company. They say and that is the last story-where the rats eat a scale of one thousand pounds, it would be no surprise that a falcon may carry away a child. The story is that a friend of a merchant's son had stolen his balance (scale) of one thousand pounds of iron with whom he had deposited it in his absence. When he asked for its return, he was told that the mice had eaten it. In retaliation he stole the son of the friend and when asked said the falcon had taken it away. The matter is then brought before a judge who easily secures the return of the balance in exchange for the son. While the conversation between Karataka and Damanaka was on, Sanjivaka having put up a fight with Pingalaka and badly mauled by him fell dead, leaving distraught Pingalaka mourning his death remembering his old friendship with him. Damanaka approaching him asked him not to grieve over the death of a grass-eater who had nursed ill-feelings for him. Pingalaka cast aside his sorrow at his words and continued his rule with Damanaka as the minister. This is one section of the Pancatantra. One can form an idea from this of the art of story-telling in India. Within one big framework it is a story within a story all linked up with the main one. In between is thrown a big corpus of verses of polity to instruct the reader in worldly wisdom.