Collected by Dr Saheb Sahu
The Panchatantra (“Five Treatises”) is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame. The surviving work is dated to about 200 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient. The text’s author is unknown, but it has been attributed to Vishnu Sharma in some recessions and Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be fictitious pen names.
It is “certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India”, and these stories are among the most widely known in the world. It goes by many names in many cultures. There is a version of Panchatantra in nearly every major language of India, and in addition there are 200 versions of the text in more than 50 languages around the world. One version reached Europe in the 11th century.
In the Indian tradition, The Panchatantra is an nītiśāstra. Nīti can be roughly translated as “the wise conduct of life” and a śāstra is a technical or scientific treatise; thus it is considered a treatise on political science and human conduct. It draws from the Dharma and Artha śāstras, quoting them extensively. The central theme of the Panchatantra is; the harmonious development of the power of a man, a life in which security, prosperity, resolute action, friendship, and good learning are so combined as to produce lasting joy. This noble theme is presented in five books of wise and witty stories, in most of which the actors are animals.
Book-1
The Loss of Friends
There is no toy
Called easy toy;
But man must strain
To body’s pain.
It is better to be dead than be poor.
If loving kindness be not shown
To friends and souls in pain,
To teachers, servants, and one-self,
What use in life, what gain?
No man reaps a harvest by ploughing barren soil.
Something a man should tell his wife,
Something to friend and some to son;
All these are trusted. He should not
Tell everything to everyone.
Whoever saw or heard
A gambler’s truthful word.
Money! Money!
A trouble to acquire; a trouble to protect;
a trouble if it is lost; a trouble if it is spent;
money is nothing but trouble,
alas! From beginning to end.
First mind, then body ages
In case of holy sages;
The body ages first,
Mind never, in the worst.
Intelligence is power.
Truth is seldom flattering.
Where wealth is very much the same,
And similar the family fame, Marriage or friendship is secure;
But not between the rich and poor.
For lost and dead and past
The wise have no laments;
Between the wise and the fools
Is just the difference.
A friend in need is a friend indeed;
Fathers indeed are those who feed.
A merely striking beauty
Is not so hard to find;
A rarer gem is wisdom,
Far-reaching power of mind.
Whoever is friendly in adversity, is indeed a true friend.
In prosperity, even a wicked person wants to be a friend.
There is no gathering of the rose without being pricked by the thorns.
If a man be self-controlled, truthful, wise, and resolute, is there a task that can stay out of reach of such a man?
Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes.
When a man begins a task, after consultation with his elders and his friends, who wish him well, He will never face any hindrance.
Even in bad times, a man should not lose hope, for by making an effort,
He can certainly find a solution.
What cannot be achieved by force?
Can be achieved through deceit.
Suppress your enemy and diseases at the very beginning, or they will become strong and destroy you.
Only a real friend will say something unpalatable for your own good, the rest are friends only in name.
Even soft water drops, falling persistently on a rock, wear it away:
So too, continuous complaints against someone else poison a man’s mind.
Never give advice, unless you are asked for it.
Rulers live off their lands,
physicians off the sick;
merchants live off consumers
the learned off fools.
Hospitality:
A stranger at dusk must not turn back unwelcomed
householders who honour and serve a guest
brought by the setting sun, themselves
take on an aura of divinity.
Health:
There is no friend like good health;
there is no foe like sickness;
no joy equals that of children;
no pain equals that of hunger.
BOOK –II
The Winning of Friends
Six things are done by friends:
To take, and give again;
To listen, and to talk;
To dine, to entertain.
No friendship ever comes
Without some kindly deed.
You have mouthful only? Give
A half to the needy:
Will any ever own the wealth?
For which his soul is greedy?
When a man is crushed by poverty
And stricken down by fate,
His best friends become his foes,
And tried affection, hate.
Better let your tongue be tied
Than to know that you have lied.
The wealthy, though of meanest birth,
Are much respected on the earth;
The poor whose lineage is prized
Like clearest moon light, are despised.
No treasure equals charity;
No gem compares with character,
No wish fulfilled, with health.
You cannot clap a single hand;
Nor, effortless, do what you planned.
Make friends, make friends, however strong
Or weak they be:
Recall the captive elephant,
Those mice set free.
When life is near an end
The presence of a friend
Bring happiness, allying
The living with the dying.
BOOK – III
Crows and Owls
If you permit disease or foe
Tom march unheeded, you may know
That waits you, sure if slow.
Make your peace with powerful, foes
Who are rich and good and wise?
To help you neighbor -this is good:
To injure him is devil hood.
Be generous to all that lives;
Receive the needy guest:
If not, your own life fades away
Like swans from lotus nest.
Three things have unrestricted course:
Famine, and death, and fear.
Aim at seven things in marriage;
All the rest disparage:
Get money, good looks,
And knowledge of books,
Good family, youth,
Position and truth.
BOOK- IV
Loss of Gains
Never strike a hermit mild,
Woman, clergyman, or child;
Give your life, if needs you must-
Do not falsify their trust.
BOOK-V
Ill – Considered Action
Man’s effort (sufficiently great)
Is just what a dullard calls fate?
Scholarship is less than sense;
Therefore seek intelligence.
The educated and the rich,
Be fooled by greed,
Plunge into wickedness, then feel
The pinch of need.
Source:
Panchatantra, translated from the Sanskrit by Arthur W. Ryder. Jaico Publishing House: Delhi, 2010(32nd Jaico edition) First published in 1949.
