| |
Panchatantra is an extremely
popular collection of short stories from the historical land of India.
Written by a sage known as Vishnu Sharma around 200 B.C., Panchatantra
comprises of five volumes.
They are,
The Loss of Friends
The Winning of Friends
Crows and Owls
Loss of Gains
Considered Action
The five volumes contain a number of stories that serve as a guidance
regarding different facets of life and living. Vishnu Sharma created
these stories while being asked by the King to impart important moral
values to his three sons. Panchatantra is made of two words, Panch
(five) and Tantra (Principles). The important principles of life have
been combined in form of interesting stories.
These stories are great source of education, values and lessons for
children. The actual texts were in Sanskrit but to make them more
readable to the common people different scholars have tried to represent
these fables in simple forms. All the stories have been accompanied by
some moral lessons.
The Gold Giving Serpent
Long time ago there was a Brahmin named Haridatta. He was a very hard
working person yet very poor. One fine day, while resting in the shadow
of the tree after the tiring working hours, he saw an anthill in his
field that housed a big snake. Assuming that the serpent must be the
guardian deity of the field and he had never paid respect to it, he
brought some milk and offered it to the serpent. He also asked for
forgiveness from the snake for not offering anything before prior to
that day.
Next day, he found a gold coin in the milk bowl. Soon enough, this
became a regular practice. Brahmin used to offer milk to the snake and
found a gold coin every time in the bowl. During one of those days,
Brahmin had to go to the town so he instructed his son to take care of
the serpent by feeding him the milk. Next day, when son found the gold
coin in the bowl he assumed this anthill must be full of gold coins. So
why not kill the serpent and take out all the gold coins? His greed made
him come up with a plan next day.
Next day, he came up with a stick along with milk. When the serpent came
out for milk, Brahmin’s son attacked him with the stick. The snake
managed to escape the blow and attacked boy who died instantly. Two days
later when the Brahmin returned he came to know about his son’s death.
He figured out the entire incident and yet tried serving the milk to the
serpent.
The snake came out of the anthill and said, ‘Brahmin you have not come
here for offering milk alone. You forgot your son’s grief and have come
here for the fulfilment of your greed. This is the end of our
friendship. Never come to me again.’
The moral of the story is that excess of the greed is always harmful.
The Musical Donkey
This one is another interesting story that tells moral lesson of ‘think
before you act’. Once upon a time, there was a thin donkey by the name
of Udhata who used to work with a washer man. Donkey used to carry loads
of bundled clothes to the river bank every day. He was made to toil real
hard. After such heavy work load, donkey needed to be fed well but he
was not satisfied with the food offered by washer man. So, Udhata
wandered around in the nearby fields and eat crops sneakily. During one
of those nights, he met a jackal and both of them became friends.
Now, it became a routine affair for both friends to stealthily wander in
nearby fields and eat cucumbers to their full. Soon, the donkey started
to appear fat and healthy. One night, after eating cucumbers the donkey
felt extremely happy and satisfied. He expressed a desire to his friend
jackal about how he wanted to sing a song. The jackal, being the smarter
one cautioned him against any such expression. He warned Udhata about
guards sleeping in the fields. But donkey had none of jackal’s
arguments.
Jackal tried real hard to persuade him about the consequences but donkey
was in no mood to listen to him. Jackal knowing the dire consequences
jumped over to the other side of the fence and decided to wait. Donkey
started to sing or bray for that matter. On hearing his irritating
voice, a guard woke up and came rushing to the donkey in sheer anger.
Guard beat the donkey black and blue and he was left on ground in poor
condition. After some time, Udhata managed to drag himself out of the
ground where he found jackal waiting for him. Jackal repeated his
earlier statements about the lurking dangers and then donkey realised
his mistake.
What is
Panchatantra
?
 |
|
