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Panchatantra

For the 2002 Indian film, see Panchatanthiram. For the 2019 Indian film, see Panchatantra (film).
Not to be confused with Pancharatra.

The first page of oldest surviving Panchatantra text in Sanskrit[1]
An 18th-century Pancatantra manuscript page in Braj ("The Talkative Turtle")
A Panchatantra relief at the Mendut temple, Central Java, Indonesia

The Panchatantra (IAST: Pañcatantra, ISO: Pañcatantra, Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a frame story.[2] The surviving work is dated to about 200 BCE, but the fables are likely much more ancient.[3][4] The text's author is unknown, but it has been attributed to Vishnu Sharma in some recensions and Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be fictitious pen names.[3] It is likely a Hindu text,[3][5] and based on older oral traditions with "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine".[6]

It is "certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India",[7] and these stories are among the most widely known in the world.[8] 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.[9] One version reached Europe in the 11th century.[2] To quote Edgerton (1924):[10]

...before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech, and perhaps other Slavonic languages. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland... [In India,] it has been worked over and over again, expanded, abstracted, turned into verse, retold in prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated into Sanskrit. And most of the stories contained in it have "gone down" into the folklore of the story-loving Hindus, whence they reappear in the collections of oral tales gathered by modern students of folk-stories.

The earliest known translation, into a non-Indian language, is in Middle Persian (Pahlavi, 550 CE) by Burzoe.[2][9] This became the basis for a Syriac translation as Kalilag and Damnag[11] and a translation into Arabic in 750 CE by Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa as Kalīlah wa Dimnah.[12] A New Persian version by Rudaki, from the 9th-10th century CE, became known as Kalīleh o Demneh.[13] Rendered in prose by Abu'l-Ma'ali Nasrallah Monshi in 1143 CE, this was the basis of Kashefi's 15th-century Anvār-i Suhaylī (The Lights of Canopus),[14] which in turn was translated into Humayun-namah in Turkish.[2] The book is also known as The Fables of Bidpai (or Pilpai in various European languages, Vidyapati in Sanskrit) or The Morall Philosophie of Doni (English, 1570).[15][16][2] Most European versions of the text are derivative works of the 12th-century Hebrew version of Panchatantra by Rabbi Joel.[2] In Germany, its translation in 1480 by Anton von Pforr has been widely read.[17] Several versions of the text are also found in Indonesia, where it is titled as Tantri Kamandaka, Tantravakya or Candapingala and consists of 360 fables.[2][18] In Laos, a version is called Nandaka-prakarana, while in Thailand it has been referred to as Nang Tantrai.[18][19][20]

  1. ^ Hertel, Johannes (1915), The Panchatantra : a collection of ancient Hindu tales in its oldest recension, the Kashmirian, entitled Tantrakhyayika Archived 30 August 2024 at the Wayback Machine, Harvard University Press, p. 1.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Panchatantra: Indian Literature Archived 29 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Olivelle1999xii was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Jacobs 1888, Introduction, p. xv; Ryder 1925, Translator's introduction, quoting Hertel: "the original work was composed in Kashmir, about 200 B.C. At this date, however, many of the individual stories were already ancient."
  5. ^ Paul Waldau; Kimberley Patton (22 May 2009). A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics. Columbia University Press. pp. 186, 680. ISBN 978-0-231-13643-3., Quote: "Pancatantra (Hindu text)..."
  6. ^ Doris Lessing, Problems, Myths and Stories Archived 9 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine, London: Institute for Cultural Research Monograph Series No. 36, 1999, p. 13
  7. ^ Introduction Archived 30 August 2024 at the Wayback Machine, Olivelle 2006, quoting Edgerton 1924.
  8. ^ Ryder 1925, Translator's introduction: "The Panchatantra contains the most widely known stories in the world. If it were further declared that the Panchatantra is the best collection of stories in the world, the assertion could hardly be disproved, and would probably command the assent of those possessing the knowledge for a judgment."
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Olivelle2009x was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Edgerton 1924, p. 3. The word "workt" has been changed to conventional spelling.
  11. ^ Falconer 1885
  12. ^ Knatchbull 1819
  13. ^ Wood 2008.
  14. ^ Eastwick 1854, Wollaston 1877, Wilkinson 1930,
  15. ^ Jacobs 1888
  16. ^ The Fables of Pilpay, facsimile reprint of the 1775 edition, Darf Publishers, London 1987
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Alexander2006p157 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ a b A. Venkatasubbiah (1966), A Javanese version of the Pancatantra Archived 29 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 47, No. 1/4 (1966), pp. 59–100
  19. ^ Anthony Kennedy Warder (1992). Indian Kāvya Literature: The art of storytelling. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 77–84. ISBN 978-81-208-0615-3.
  20. ^ Francisca Cho (2017). Seeing Like the Buddha: Enlightenment through Film. State University of New York Press. pp. 53–54. ISBN 978-1-4384-6440-4., Quote: "the Thai collection of stories called the Nang Tantrai features, which are based on the third century BCE Indian collection of animal fables known as the Pancatantra"

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