The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose. The surviving work is dated to about 200 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient.
It has been translated in some 50 languages outside of India. One version reached Europe in the 11th century. The Pañchatantra was first published in 1863 in Hungarian.The earliest known translation, into a non-Indian language, is the Pahlavi language of Iran in 550 CE by Borzuya. The book had become popular in Iran, and was translated into Syriac and Arabic whose copies survive as Kalīla wa Dimna. This is considered the first masterpiece of "Arabic literary prose." It is the 8th-century Kalila wa Demna text, that has been the most influential, not only in the Middle East, but also through its translations into Greek, Hebrew and Old Spanish.  |
| The King of the Crows conferring with his political advisors, 1210 CE, |
Arabic version of Kalila wa dimna, Panchatantra - WikipediaThe stories in the Panchatantra deploy metaphors of anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices. Its narrative illustrates, for the benefit of three ignorant princes, the central Hindu principles of nīti, or wise conduct of life. It is also explained that nīti "represents an admirable attempt to answer the insistent question how to win the utmost possible joy from life in the world of men" and that nīti is "the harmonious development of the powers of man, a life in which security, prosperity, resolute action, friendship, and good learning are so combined to produce joy".
Panchatantra is in five parts..
The Panchatantra, tells wonderfully a collection of delightful stories with pithy proverbs, ageless and practical wisdom; one of its appeal and success is that it is a complex book that "does not reduce the complexities of human life, government policy, political strategies, and ethical dilemmas into simple solutions; it can and does speak to different readers at different levels."
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