The Panchatantra belongs to the rich tradition of
ORAL LITERATURE in India. It is a collection of tales
populated mainly with animal characters acting as
heroes and villains and executed with a moralistic
content and a clearly instructional tone. The Preamble
to the Panchatantra offers the information
that the tales were composed (or perhaps compiled)
by the 80-year-old sage Visnu Sarma as part
of his efforts to both entertain and educate the
three sons of King Amara-sakti.
The Panchatantra is a complex group of tales,
interwoven into a series of frame stories, which operate
on several allegorical levels. The characters
are given names suggestive of the qualities they
represent, and their animal personas transparently
reveal the human personalities beneath. Throughout
the Panchatantra, the natural world functions
as a metaphor for the human world; it is, in effect,
a treatise on moral philosophy disguised as a set of
fabulous narratives.
Dating the Panchatantra is difficult. Scholars
have suggested dates as early as the second century
B.C., though no records of a manuscript exist prior
to A.D. 570. Analogues exist in other cultures, such
as the fables of AESOP and PHAEDRUS, and certain
tales of the Panchatantra parallel stories from the
JATAKA and Tipitaka. This is hardly surprising, since
oral literature passes through many hands, possibly
being reworked and embellished each time,
which also makes ascertaining authorship difficult.
The existence of Visnu Sarma has been questioned,
since no evidence for him occurs outside the Panchatantra
itself. He was possibly the kavi, or court
poet, for the king of “the southern lands” mentioned
in the same stanza. He may also be a fictional
character created as part of a literary device
of the narrative.
Nevertheless, an authorial hand of no little genius
is evidently at work. The content and tone of
the stories suggest that the author knew the ways of
royal courtiers and was a sharp-witted observer of
the behavior and morals of all levels of Indian society.
His overall purpose is to edify, for the Preamble
states that the work is a nitisastra, a set of
instructions on wise conduct, set forth for the purpose
of “awakening young minds.” The dramatic
and elegant style of his prose and verse convey a
deep understanding of philosophical issues and
also of human nature. Visnu Sarma’s ability to interweave
humor and wit into his narratives also
gives his tales a satiric edge that supports the often
poignant tone.
Critical Analysis
The Panchatantra is written in both prose and
verse forms, a characteristic of the genre of Sanskrit
literature referred to as champu. Dialogue and
narrative are offered in prose, while verse is employed
to articulate concepts, provide moral instruction,
and describe emotional behavior and
sentiment. Verse usually appears in the beginning
and end of the text to emphasize the moral of the
tale, while the prose form is used primarily to recount
the story’s developments.
The Panchatantra is structured as a series of
tales within tales, with the Preamble functioning as
the highest level or frame. The five books that follow
each offer another frame story, within which
more stories are nested. This nesting technique appears
in other Sanskrit literature, notably in the Indian
EPIC the MAHABHARATA and to some extent in
Vedic literature.Within the Panchatantra, Book 1,
“The Estrangement of Friends,” contains the most
subsidiary tales. Each successive book addresses a
different theme: Book 2 examines the “Winning of
Friends,”Book 3 speaks “Of Crows and Owls,”Book
4 discusses “Loss of Gains,” and Book 5 provides examples
of “Rash Deeds.”
The philosophical structure that runs through
the narrative structure carries out the author’s intention
to provide a nitisastra. In Hindu belief, the
path to living wisely and well required the equal
and balanced pursuit of three aims: dharma, described
as duty, compliance with the law, or right
conduct; artha, wealth or material possessions,
since money was considered a requirement for gracious
living; and kama, which includes love and
sensual fulfillment. These concepts are dealt with
separately in other Sanskrit texts, including the
Dharmasastra, the Arthasastra, and the KAMA SUTRA,
but the Panchatantra incorporates instructions on
all three areas into a single context.
Books 2 and 5, for example, speak to the concept
of artha, or the acquisition of material resources,
when the characters describe the evils of
poverty. A verse from Book 5 vividly captures the
correlation between wealth and acquisition of
knowledge, suggesting one can only successfully
meditate and acquire wisdom if one has a full
stomach:
Wit, kindliness and modesty,
Sweetness of speech and youthful beauty,
Liveliness too and vitality;
Freedom from sorrow, and joviality;
Uprightness, knowledge of sacred texts;
The wisdom of the Preceptor of the
Immortals;
Purity as well of mind and body;
Respect too for rules of right conduct:
All these fine attributes arise in people,
Once their belly-pot is full.
Part of dharma means fulfilling the duties required
of one’s station in life, which Cloud Hue,
the King of Crows, encounters in Book 3 when he
must defend his kingdom and subjects from a
cruel enemy. Dharma dictates the behavior of all
beings, including the snake in Book 1, who informs
the priest that he bites not to hurt anyone,
but only does so in self-defense.
The third element of kama is reflected in the
theme of friendship that pervades all five books.
This verse from Book 2 meditates on how to
achieve happiness:
Those who enjoy happy times,
Friends with dear friends,
Lovers with their beloved,
Joyful with the joyous. . . .
True friendship, where beings are connected like
flesh and claw, is illustrated in Book 2’s story of
Goldy, a mole; Lightwing, a crow; and Slowcoach,
a tortoise. Goldy and Lightwing, as his friends, successfully
extricate Slowcoach from his neurotic obsession
and restore him to serenity and happiness.
The consequence of a balanced approach to
dharma, artha, and kama is a harmonious order
within society, which the Panchatantra, in the Preamble,
sets out to illuminate. Prominent signposts
in various parts of the narrative constantly remind
the reader that these stories are parables about
human society and human virtues, vices, and
frailty. A good example is “The Singing Donkey” of
Book V, a pretentious soul who claims to know
everything about music except how to sing.
In the Panchatantra, the natural world and the
human world mirror each other. Two main devices
achieve this effect. The narrative uses analogy
to portray similarities in social and political
hierarchy and organization between the two
worlds. For example, the king of the human
world parallels the characteristics of the animal
king of the forest. The second literary device, the
use of allegory, anthropomorphizes or projects
human characteristics onto the animal characters
in the stories. Just like the three princes in the
Preamble who desire to learn moral conduct,
most of the good characters in the stories strive to
attain the highest level of education. Animal
characters such as Lively the bull and Goldy the
mole represent the perfect model citizens with
their judicious blend of good learning and sound
practical sense.
As Franklin Edgerton observes in the Panchatantra
Reconstructed: “No other work of Hindu
literature has played so important a part in the literature
of the world. . . . Indeed, the statement has
been made that no book except the BIBLE has enjoyed
such an extensive circulation in the world as a
whole.” The influence of the Panchatantra in both
its structural format and its dual purposes of entertainment
and enlightenment can be traced in works
as diverse as the THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, Giovanni
Bocaccio’s Decameron, Geoffrey Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, and Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables.
Its canny characters and lively plots surface in the
fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and the Br’er Rabbit
stories of the American south. The sheer number
of translations of the Panchatantra provide proof
of its popularity.No other work of Indian literature,
and perhaps no other work of world literature, has
had such an ageless and universal appeal.
English Versions of the Panchatantra
The Panchatantra. Translated by Chandra Rajan.
London: Penguin Books, 1993.
The Panchatantra: The Book of India’s Folk Wisdom.
Translated by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997.
Works about the Panchatantra
Amore, R. C. and L.D. Shinn. Lustful Maidens and Ascetic
Kings: Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Edgerton, Franklin. The Panchatantra Reconstructed,
I: Text and Critical Apparatus. American Oriental
Series 2. New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental
Society, 1924.