Tale
The Panchatantra
पञ्चतन्त्र
Anonymous · 300
Synopsis
King Amarashakti despairs of his three sons, who resist all study. An old brahmin, Vishnusharman, promises to make them masters of prudent conduct within six months, and tells them animal fables nested one inside another, in five books: the quarrel of friends, provoked by a scheming jackal, the winning of friends, the war of the crows and the owls, the loss of what has been gained, and rash action.
Context
The date of composition remains uncertain, with estimates ranging from several centuries before the Common Era to the third century of the Common Era; the Vishnusharman of the prologue may be no more than a literary invention, and certain versions from southern India attribute the text to Vasubhaga. Translated into Pahlavi by Borzuya around 570, then into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa around 750 under the title Kalila wa Dimna, after the names of the two jackals of the first book, the collection reached Europe in the eleventh century; almost all the early European translations descend from the Arabic version.
Who it is for
Tales nested within one another on several levels, which is disorienting at first; each fable can also be read separately.
Prizes and reception
Present before 1600 in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English and several Slavic languages; a dozen of La Fontaine's fables derive from it.
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