Panchatantra

Panchatantra means "five formulas" and is divided into five sections of stories illustrating them called "Loss of Friends," "Winning of Friends," "Crows and Owls," "Loss of Gains," and "Ill-considered Action." In these traditional Hindu animal tales the worldly values of wealth and pleasure are more prominent than in the Jatakas. The Panchatantra may have been written down as early as the second century BC, and numerous versions spread to Persia in the sixth century and to Europe during the middle ages. A German version in 1481, for example, was one of the earliest printed books.

The Panchatantra is considered a textbook for wise conduct in this world. The basic struggle for survival underlies the competition between animals, who are personified to portray different human traits, and these primordial instincts are often illustrated dramatically by some animals eating others. Thus the struggle for life is not only to find enough to eat but also to keep from being eaten by others. Nevertheless friendship between different creatures is a way to find peaceful co-existence and mutual benefit amidst the dangers. Finding that his three sons are hostile to the usual education, a king asks the Brahmin Vishnu-Sharman to teach them the art of practical life in a way they will understand. Vishnu-Sharman accomplishes this task by making the boys memorize the stories of the five books.

In the first book on the loss of friends, the king is represented by a lion named Rusty, who befriends a wounded bull called Lively. Most of the tales are told by two jackals named Cheek and Victor, who are the sons of royal counselors and out of a job. Victor persuades Rusty to give a safe conduct for him and Lively, who has been bellowing in the forest because of his wound. Victor sets himself up as a counselor and illustrates his advice to Lively with parables. The lion Rusty protects the bull Lively, and they become close friends, while the two jackals, Victor and Cheek, are suffering hunger along with other animals normally dependent on the king of beasts.

So Victor and Cheek counsel each other with stories how they can regain the lion's favor. They decide that Rusty has fallen into the vice of attachment that can manifest in drinking, women, hunting, scolding, gambling, greed, and cruelty. The other vices are deficiency, corruption, devastation, and mistaken policy. Deficiency can be in the king, counselor, people, fortress, treasure, punitive power, or friends. Corruption comes from restlessness. Devastation can be from fire, water, disease, plague, panic, famine, excessive rain, or an act of God. Mistaken policy occurs when the six political expedients of war, peace, change of base, entrenchment, alliance, and duplicity are not used correctly. By being captivated by Lively Rusty is accused of falling into the deficiency of a "vegetarian morality" by ignoring his counselors. Victor tells how a crow killed a black snake, a crab killed a heron, and even a rabbit killed a lion by causing it to look down a well at its own image.

Then Victor tells how a weaver won the love of a princess by adopting the power of Vishnu to fly as Garuda. Gaining the king's ear, Victor tells Rusty that the bull Lively is planning to take over his kingdom; he warns him that no king should ever give his power over to a single counselor. Although Lively is not a carnivore, Victor argues that a bull is food, and he may egg on others like worms breeding in his excrement. A louse was living nicely in the king's bed until a flea stirred up trouble and caused a search that found the louse's hiding place. Having made Rusty suspicious of Lively, Victor next tells the bull that Rusty is planning to kill and eat him. Now Lively greatly fears the lion. Lively tells how a swan befriending an owl is shot by a hunter. Fearing he too will be eaten by Rusty, Lively tells the story of how a camel was eaten by a starving lion and a carnivorous leopard, jackal, and crow.

Self-knowledge and self-restraint are lacking when the stupid turtle opened its mouth to talk when being carried on a stick by helpful birds to a new home; falling to the ground the turtle's meat is cut to bits by knives. The approaches of three fishes are contrasted as Forethought and Ready-wit are adaptable and survive, but Fatalist cannot keep alive. An old gander's advice is at first ignored, causing the geese to be captured by a hunter; but when the gander tells them to play dead, they are thrown on the ground and can fly away. The jackals advise people to look to their own advantage; otherwise studying books is merely mental strain.

Finally when Rusty sees the bull approaching so warily, he springs at Lively, and they fight. Cheek reproaches Victor for causing this enmity and threatening the kingdom. Discerning counselors aim for conciliation and postpone harsh deeds. Power with intelligence can lead to peace if it is cultivated. A countermeasure is needed to avoid misfortune. Harsh comment may be needed when flattery can be treason. So Cheek tells some stories that show that cheating and lying eventually backfire. Wrong-mind's schemes for cheating Right-mind are eventually revealed, and he is punished. A pawnbroker claims that mice ate Naduk's iron balance-beam; so Naduk hides the pawnbroker's son, saying that a hawk must have carried him off. Since the boy is fifteen, this is as unbelievable as mice eating iron. So the magistrate orders the return of the balance beam, and Naduk tells them where the boy is hidden. Cheek tells two stories that indicate that an enemy may prove better than a friend, and that therefore right should be done and wrong avoided.

This causes Victor to slink away; but Rusty and Lively renew their battle, and the lion kills the bull. Rusty feels guilty, but Victor advises him to remain resolute, claiming that normal morality does not apply to kings. Cheek reprimands Victor for stirring up strife and causing the master to fight his own servant, for victory is not what the gods command. It is fools who fight; the wise find nonviolent ways. The truth must be spoken, for pleasant lies lead the royal mind astray. Several counselors ought to be consulted separately for independent views. A master should be mindful of human differences and not let his mind be taken astray by others' advice.

The second book on the winning of friends is more positive. These stories are mostly by four friends: Swift the crow, Gold the mouse, Slow the turtle, and Spot the deer. Swift tells how doves escaped from the cruel hunter's snare by flying up all together. The mouse Gold then chewed through the snare to free the doves, showing the value of friendship. Although crows usually eat mice, Gold is won over to friendship by Swift's worldly wisdom. Friendship involves taking and giving, listening and talking, dining and entertaining. Because of a drought the crow wants to visit his friend Slow the turtle, and Gold accompanies him riding on his back. Gold tells several stories to show that the brave and friendly can prosper, but the fatalistic slacker does not. The wealthy who are greedy may be miserable, while the contented beggar is rich.

No treasure equals charity;
Content is perfect wealth;
No gem compares with character;
No wish fulfilled, with health.4

Slow the turtle tells of the money troubles of a weaver. Then the crow, mouse, and turtle are joined by a deer named Spot, and they all become friends. Spot tells how mice, who were being trampled by elephants, persuaded them to stay away from their homes, and in return the mice gnawed the ropes to free the elephants when they were captured. One day Spot is missing, and Swift finds him caught in a trap. The crow flies back to get Gold, who gnaws the trap to free Spot. Slow the turtle made the mistake of joining them and was captured by the hunter. So Spot laid down by the water as though dead, and the crow pretended to peck at him. The hunter put down the turtle, who escaped into the water, while Spot dashed off into the forest, and Swift flew away. Thus free of all injury the four friends lived in mutual affection and happiness.

The third book tells the story of the war between the crows and owls. The crows resent that the chief owl has been named king by the birds. Cloudy the crow-king consults his advisors, who each recommend one of the six strategies related to war and peace. Live-Again counsels peace with the powerful. Live-Well suggests war or else violence will come again. Live-Along recommends a change of base, a retreat followed by an invasion. Live-On dislikes all three of these approaches and advises entrenchment in a strong fort. Live-Long recommends an alliance. Finally Live-Strong counsels duplicity and plans a clever spy mission in which he appears to have been attacked by his king and is found by the owls. Diplomacy is demonstrated in a story in which a rabbit is a clever envoy to the elephants, but another rabbit and partridge died by confiding in a cat.

When the owls find Live-Strong wounded by the crows, they have to decide what to do with him. The owl-king Foe-Crusher asks his five advisors. Red-Eye says he should be killed as a dangerous enemy. Fierce-Eye says it is wrong to kill a suppliant, and Flame-Eye, Hook-nose, and Wall-Ear agree Live-Strong should not be killed. Live-Strong asks to be burned by fire so that he could be reborn as an owl to get back at Cloudy. Disregarding Red-Eye the owl-king agrees to feed Live-Strong in his fortress, and the wily crow regains his strength. Red-Eye and his followers leave the fortress, and with Live-Strong's help the crows are able to attack and burn down the owls' refuge. The crafty advice of Live-Strong is victorious, and he declares that kingship requires prudence, self-sacrifice, and courage. Cloudy is amazed at the value of this political skill that leads to wealth, fame, and power.

The last two books are shorter. In "Loss of Gains" the wife of a crocodile talks her husband into killing a monkey, who has shared fruit with them so that she could eat his heart. The crocodile invites the monkey to his home but confesses his purpose on the way so that the monkey can pray. The monkey says he has another heart at home and convinces the crocodile to take him back. Further attempts to capture the monkey are vain unlike the story where the jackal invites a donkey who is eaten by a lion. The jackal then eats the heart and ears of the donkey, and the lion is annoyed; but the jackal explains that a donkey, who would return to the forest after being attacked by a lion once obviously has no heart or ears.

In the last book on ill-considered action a merchant named Jewel dreams that a Jain monk appears, and he hits him on the head with a stick, whereupon the monk turns to gold. The dream actually occurs the next day. A barber witnesses it and tries to attack some Jain monks and is thrown in jail, showing that his action was ill-considered because not guided by a dream. Four treasure seekers find in turn copper, silver, and gold, the fourth expecting to find something better. Instead he must replace a man tortured by a wheel on his head.

The difference between scholarship and sense is revealed in the story of the lion-makers. Finding the carcass of a dead lion, one scholar assembles the skeleton, the second provides flesh and blood, and the third is going to give it life; but the non-scholar having only sense says not to bring a dangerous lion to life. So he climbs a tree, and the three scholars are killed by their ill-advised creation.

Greed and revenge are the themes of the tale of the unforgiving monkey, who gets back at the household of a king for using the monkey-fat to cure horses' burns by offering to take them to a lake where he got a pearl necklace when he knows they will be killed by the demon in the lake. Everything grows old, but one thing remains young forever - greed.

Although the tales of the Panchatantra emphasize the ambitious goals of wealth and power, their crafty lessons in entertaining stories do give people important lessons in survival and the ways of the fiercely competitive human and natural worlds.

Source: Hindunet.org