The Pancatantra by Sarma Visnu & Visnu Sarma

Author:Sarma, Visnu & Visnu Sarma
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fairy Tales; Folk Tales; Legends & Mythology, Classics, Literary Criticism, Asian, Indic, Social Science, Folklore & Mythology
Publisher: Penguin UK
Published: 2006-08-31T05:12:27+00:00

BOOK II

Winning of Friends

And now begins the second book known as the Winning of Friends, whose opening verse runs thus:

(1) Lacking resources, destitute of wealth,

wise men possessed of knowledge and insight,

are quick to accomplish their desired aims,

as the crow and mole, the deer and tortoise did.

‘Oh! How was that?’ asked the princes eagerly. And Viṣṇu Śarma began the tale.

In the southern land flourished the city known as Pramadāropya. Not too far away grew a lofty banyan tree with mighty trunk and branches providing a home for all creatures. As it has been said:

(2) Deer recline in its shade;

birds in multitudes gather to roost

darkening its dark-green canopy of leaves;

troops of monkeys cling to the trunk;

while hollows hum with insect-throngs,

flowers are boldly kissed by honey-bees;

O! What happiness its every limb showers

on assemblages of various creatures;

Such a tree deserves all praise,

others only burden the Earth.

A crow named Lightwing,1 had his home in that tree. One day as he was about to fly towards the city in search of food, he saw a fowler approaching the tree with every intention of snaring birds; for he carried a net and a club in his hands and hunting dogs followed at his heels. He was a man of fierce appearance with splayed hands and feet, bloodshot eyes, bulging genitals; thickset, with a very rough, gnarled frame and swarthy complexion; his hair was knotted in a bunch on top of his head. Why describe him at great length? Suffice it to say that he appeared a second god of destruction, noose in hand; the very incarnation of evil and the soul of unrighteousness; prime instructor in crime and bosom friend of Death.

On seeing him, Lightwing was alarmed and started reflecting nervously, ‘Oho! What crime is this fellow planning to commit now? To cause me mortal harm? Or, alas, has he some other purpose in mind?’ With a burning desire to find out, he kept close behind the fowler.

Soon, the fowler picked a spot, spread his net out, scattered some grain and hid not too far away. The birds that lived there checked by Lightwing’s warning looked askance at the grain as if it were deadly poison and remained quiet.

At this juncture, Sheenneck,2 King of Doves, surrounded by hundreds of dove-retainers, who had been flying around in search of food, saw the scattered grain from far away. In spite of Lightwing’s strong dissuasions, greedy-tongued Sheenneck, alighted on that large net to peck. The moment he settled on the robber’s net, he, with his whole retinue, was caught in its meshes. Nor was it any fault of his; it happened because of an adverse fate. As it is wisely observed:

(3) How did Rāvaṇa fail to consider

how wrong it was to steal another’s wife!

How too was Rāma unable to see

that a golden deer could never be!

And how did Yudhisthira as well fall prey

playing a game of dice, to calamity!

As a rule, in the face of adversity

that causes men’s minds to whirl in a daze

the intelligence loses its clarity.

Further:

(4) Fettered fast

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