Panchatantra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Panchatantra[1][2][3][4] (IAST: Pañcatantra, Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र, 'Five Principles') was originally a collection of Sanskrit animal fables in verse and prose. The original Sanskrit work, now long lost, and which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE,[5] is attributed to Vishnu Sarma. However, based as it is on older oral traditions, its antecedents among storytellers probably hark back to the origins of language[6] and the subcontinent's earliest social groupings of hunting and fishing folk gathered around campfires.[7][8] It is "certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India" and there are over 200 versions in more than 50 languages.[9]

Versions of it have also been known as the Tantrākhyāyikā[10] (Sanskrit: तन्त्राख्यायिका) and in other cultures as Kalīlah wa Dimnah (Arabic: كليلة و دمنة‎) or Kalila and Dimna[11] (Persian: کلیله و دمنه) Kalīleh o Demneh or Anvār-e Soheylī[12][13][14] (Persian: انوار سهیلی, 'The Lights of Canopus') or Kalilag and Damnag[15] (Syriac) or Kalīlah wa Dimnah[16] (English, 2008) or The Fables of Bidpai[17][18] (or Pilpai, in various European languages) or The Morall Philosophie of Doni (English, 1570).

Origins, content and function

A page from the Arabic version of Kalila wa dimna dated 1210 CE illustrating the King of the Crows conferring with his political advisors

A page from Kelileh o Demneh dated 1429, from Herat, a Persian translation of the Panchatantra derived from the Arabic version — Kalila wa Dimna — depicts the manipulative jackal-vizier, Dimna, trying to lead his lion-king into war.

A Panchatantra relief at the Mendut temple, Central Java, Indonesia.

The work is an ancient and vigorous multicultural hybrid that to this day continues an erratic process of cross-border mutation and adaptation as modern writers and publishers struggle to fathom, simplify and re-brand its complex origins.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]

In the Indian tradition, the Panchatantra is a nītiśāstra, a treatise on political science and human conduct, or nīti. One of the early Western scholars on the Panchatantra was Dr. Johannes Hertel, who viewed the book as having a Machiavellian character. Other scholars dismiss this assessment as one-sided, and even view the stories as teaching dharma, or proper moral conduct.[28]

It illustrates, for the benefit of princes who may succeed to a throne, the central Hindu principles of Raja niti (political science) through an inter-woven series of colorful animal tales. These operate like a succession of Russian dolls, one narrative opening within another, sometimes three or four deep. It consists of five books, which are called:

• Mitra Bhedha (The Loss of Friends)
• Mitra Laabha, also called Mitra Samprāpti (Gaining Friends)
• Kākolūkīyam (Crows and Owls)
• Labdhapraṇāśam (Loss Of Gains)
• Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ (Ill-Considered Action / Rash deeds)

Each distinct part of the book contains (as Professor Edgerton noted in 1924) "at least one story, and usually more, which are 'emboxed' in the main story, called the 'frame-story'. Sometimes there is a double emboxment; another story is inserted in an 'emboxed' story. Moreover, the [whole] work begins with a brief introduction, which as in a frame all five . . . [parts] are regarded as 'emboxed'". Vishnu Sarma's idea was that humans can assimilate more about their own habitually unflattering behavior if it is disguised in terms of entertainingly configured stories about supposedly less illustrious beasts than themselves.[29]

Another observation that Professor Edgerton makes challenges our persistent assumption that animal fables function mainly as adjuncts to religious dogma, acting as indoctrination devices to condition the moral behaviour of small children and obedient adults. Not the Machiavellian Panchatantra: "Vishnu Sarma undertakes," Edgerton notes, "to instruct three dull and ignorant princes in the principles of polity, by means of stories . . . .[This is] a textbook of artha, 'worldly wisdom', or niti, polity, which the Hindus regard as one of the three objects of human desire, the other being dharma, 'religion or morally proper conduct' and kama 'love' . . . . The so-called 'morals' of the stories have no bearing on morality; they are unmoral, and often immoral. They glorify shrewdness, practical wisdom, in the affairs of life, and especially of politics, of government."

This realistic practicality explains why the original Sanskrit villain jackal, the decidedly jealous, sneaky and evil vizier-like Damanaka ('Victor') is his frame-story's winner, and not his goody-goody brother Karataka who is presumably left 'Horribly Howling' at the vile injustice of Part One's final murderous events. In fact, in its steady migration westward the persistent theme of evil-triumphant in Kalila and Dimna, Part One frequently outraged Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders — so much so, indeed, that Ibn al-Muqaffa carefully inserts (no doubt hoping to pacify the powerful religious zealots of his own turbulent times) an entire extra chapter at the end of Part One of his Arabic masterpiece, putting Dimna in jail, on trial and eventually to death.

Needless to say there is no vestige of such dogmatic moralising in the collations that remain to us of the pre-Islamic original — The Panchatantra. Technically, from the perspective of a more subtle and flexible functionality, Joseph Jacobs in 1888[17] offers a less coercive interpretation of how the Panchatantra/Kalila and Dimna stories might work more effectively to modify human behaviour: ... if one thinks of it, the very raison d'être of the Fable is to imply its moral without mentioning it.

In short the learning opportunity is interactive, voluntary, dynamic, reflective, open, frustrating and risky — compared to the simplified, fixed and often terrifyingly authoritative lessons delivered from priestly heights that briefly excite and amuse, then are soon forgotten, like electric shocks. In such circumstance (which is the norm) the human animal is conditioned to respond to the approved socialising, tagline 'message' of a local time-and-culture-bound 'moral', and prevented from glimpsing anything objective beyond it at an individual pace.

Basic plot of each chapter

Throughout its history, the book has been translated into many languages and several new chapters were added. Here, all chapters included in the subsequent translations from the Arabic version are listed. It must be also noted that the Arabic titles were included, and where appropriate, the Sanskrit ones too between brackets.

Chapter 1: The Lion and the Bull (Mitra Bhedha)

The first chapter deals with the jackal Dimna gaining favor with the lion (pictured as the king of all animals) and climbing the ranks rapidly, and the subsequent plot by the jackal to bring down the bull who also grew very close to the king, out of pure jealousy. The plot succeeds and the bull is murdered by the lion unjustly.
Moral: One must not accuse others falsely, and strive to preserve friendships.

Chapter 2: Investigating Dimna

This chapter, which was later included by Ibn El-Mougafa’, tells of the trial of Dimna the jackal after he is suspected of intentionally leading to the death of the bull “shanzabeh” who is mentioned in the first chapter. The trial lasts for 2 days to no avail, until the tiger and the leopard come forward and accuse Dimna. He is subsequently put to rest.
Moral: Truth is bound to be revealed, sooner or later.

Chapter 3: The Captured Pigeon (Mitra Laabha)

One of the original chapters, it is the second chapter in the original book. It tells of the story of the crow who upon seeing the favour the rat performed to free the pigeon and her companions, decides to befriend the rat despite the latter's initial objections. The storyline evolves as this 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 herself, falls in the trap.
Moral: Friends are an integral part of life.

Chapter 4: The Owl and the Crows (Kākolūkīyam)

The third chapter in the original book, and not unlike chapter 1 deals with deceit and glorifies it to a certain extent as it deals with the crow who pretends to be an outcast from his own group to gain entry into the rival owl group, and by doing so gains access to their secrets and learns of their vulnerabilities. He later summons his group of crows to set fire on all entrances to the cave where the owls live and suffocate them to death.
Moral: Mental strength and deceit are stronger than brute force.

Chapter 5: The Monkey and Alghlim (Labdhapraṇāśam)

It deals with the artificially-constructed symbiotic relationship between the monkey and the Alghlim. Alghlim risked the relationship by conspiring to acquire the heart of the monkey to heal his wife, the monkey finds out about this and avoids this grim fate.
Moral: One must never betray friends, and should stay vigilant at all times.

Chapter 6: The hermit and the weasel (Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ)

Originally the last chapter of the book, it deals with hermit who leaves his child with a weasel friend of his, and upon returning and finding blood on the weasel's mouth, he kills it. He later finds out that the weasel actually defended his son, and killed a snake that attempted to kill the boy.
Moral: One must never rush in making judgments.

Early cross-cultural migrations

The Panchatantra approximated its current literary form within the 4th — 6th centuries CE. No Sanskrit texts before 1000 CE have survived.[30] According to Indian tradition, it was written around 200 BCE by Pandit Vishnu Sarma, a sage. One of the most influential Sanskrit contributions to world literature, it was exported (probably both in oral and literary formats) north to Tibet and China and east to South East Asia by Buddhist monks on pilgrimage.[31]