See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/252931524

Kalila & Dimna

Article · January 2010

CITATIONS READS
0 27,288

1 author:

Dr. Nafisa Abdelsadek

University of Birmingham
5 PUBLICATIONS   2 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Dr. Nafisa Abdelsadek on 26 June 2014.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

1.2 Kalilah wa Dimnah

1.2.1 The Influence of Kalilah & Dimnah

Of all the ancient classics originating in the East, maybe the Thousand and One

Nights, as we have seen above, is the most famous. The Book of Kalilah & Dimnah or The

Fables of Pilpay or Bidpai, however, is another collection of Eastern stories which has had an

immense influence on writers of stories worldwide from the 6thcentury AD until present

times. This collection of tales originated in India where story telling was a very ancient and

widespread art. Talking animals figure in texts going back to the early first millennium BC.

An episode in an early UpaniNad, for example, opens with a man overhearing a pair of geese

talking to each other as they fly overhead.1 Indians long ago appreciated the appeal of animal

fables to both children and adults and used them in a variety of ways. The Jātakas, one of the

largest collections of ancient animal fables, contained stories about the previous lives of the

Buddha in which he was born as an animal. These stories were not invented by the Buddhists

but selected and possibly modified from available fables which would illustrate the virtues

observed by the Buddha in each of his lives on the road to enlightenment. Thus fables were

used for a didactic and religious purpose, a practice seen also in the great Indian epic the

Mahābhārata. The collection of stories of most interest to us in relation to Kalilah & Dimnah

is the Panchatantra, as this formed the basis of a large part of the material found in the later

translations known as Kalilah & Dimnah.

This section will look at the history and influence of Kalilah & Dimnah and follow its

journey, via a large number of translations, to different parts of the world and down to present

times. The following diagram shows some of Kalilah & Dimnah’s main translations from

the13th to the19th century AD.

1
(Chāndogya Upanisad, 4.1.2-5.)
 It has been seen in the previous section that stories from earlier times have been

handed down and adapted, forming a base from which children’s stories have been told, sung,

translated, written and rewritten. In the case of One Thousand and One Nights the stories are

generally held to have not been originally designed for children, although several of them

have proved particularly suitable for children and have become famous as children’s stories.

Likewise, traditional tales, fables, animal stories and the like have been quoted as sources

from which Iranian children’s literature has drawn heavily. Kalilah & Dimnah, which has had

a great influence on children’s stories, not only in Iran, but throughout the world, however is

held to have been written as a book of wisdom and instructions for royal princes.
 Tooran Mirhadi2 makes a further distinction between fables and literature, asserting

that: ‘The publication of children’s books in Iran has a tendency towards fables which are

separated from the field of literature.’ Milani 3 & Abu-Nasr 4 both contend that Iranian

children’s stories rely heavily for their source on the traditional fables and epics of old.

With regard to Kalilah & Dimnah, many sources confirm that it was a work originally

written for children and young people. Mohammadi 5 mentions the intended audience of

Kalilah & Dimnah in the following terms: ‘Kalilah & Dimnah was written for the instruction

of young Hindi princes. Therefore, the original audience of this book was children and young

people.’ The entry in the Encyclopedia of Islam6 on Kalila wa Dimna says: ‘The book was

intended to instruct princes in the laws of polity by means of animal-fables composed in

perfect Sanskrit.’ This points to the fact that Kalilah & Dimnah was originally designed with

a young audience in mind. Mahjub7 supports this by saying: ‘The purpose of writing Kalilah

& Dimnah was to teach rules of conduct and statesmanship to princes in a memorable way

using animal stories,’ as does Ibn al-Muqaffa in his introduction when he includes the

following as one of four objectives that the author had in mind when composing the book:

‘To render it attractive to the young reader by employing birds and animals in the stories.’

Patrick Olivelle, however, in his 1997 translation,8 defines the Pañcatantra as ‘a book

by and for men, especially men of the court, it following that the major players in court and in

politics are kings and ministers.’ However, he finds an anomaly in that:

2
Tooran Mirhadi, ‘Getting Acquainted with the Children's Book Committee of Iran,’ Zanan, (Monthly)
January-February1994, Vol.3, No.22,p.31.
3
Milani, Farzaneh, Veils and Words, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1992, p.178.
4
Julinda Abu-Nasr in International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, editor Peter Hunt
(Routledge, 1996) p. 792.
5
Mohammadi, H. Mohammad & Zohre Ghaeni, Tarikh-e Adabiyat-e Kudakan-e Iran, (The History of
Children’s Literature in Iran), Vol.1, Oral Tradition & Ancient Times, Tehran: Nashr Chista, 1380/2001, p.140.
6
Brockelmann, C. ‘Kalilah wa Dimnah,’ Encyclopedia of Islam Leiden: E.J.Brill; London: Luzac & Co., 1978,
2nd Ed., Vol. 4, pp.503-6.
7
Mohammad Jaafari Mahjub, About Kalilah & Dimnah, Tehran: Kharzami 1349AH, p.17.16.
8
pp.xxviii, xxix
 ‘The Pañcatantra presents itself as intended for the instruction of a king, at least of
future kings, but the text, as I see it, is not about kings but about ministers. Kings are
depicted as by and large, timid, and stupid…. Every king we encounter… cuts a
sorry figure and is depicted as helpless and totally under the control of his ministers
and, the worst cut of all in this macho world, kings are compared to women and
even to prostitutes 9 in their capriciousness and irrationality! Would a book intended
for kings be so disparaging of kings? And could it be that, despite the author’s
protestations to the contrary, the audience of the Pañcatantra…. was not kings but
ministers and court officials?’

Fables are usually considered to be women’s oral tales which were handed down from

generation to generation. However, if we examine the history and origins of some of these

tales we find the opposite to be, in fact, the case. The origin of the stories in the Panchatantra

is uncertain, its author probably held to be a Brahmin. It is impossible to say that the writer of

the first manuscript was the inventor and composer of these stories. He may have only been

rewriting stories already well known in his time. It is entirely possible that the origin of this

wisdom was oral literature, but the boundaries are not so easily drawn. Written literature

becomes oral literature which is then written down again, and so on through the ages.

Whatever the speculation, the Indian tradition regards the Pañcatantra, the book

which Kalilah & Dimnah was translated from, as a śāstra, that is, a technical or scientific

treatise, and more specifically as a nītiśastra, a treatise on government or political science.

While folklorists in general hold that literary versions of stories draw from the oral folklore,

research has shown that this process can also be reversed. N. Brown10, who has extensively

examined the literary and oral spread of Pañcatantra stories throughout the sub-continent,

has shown that some of the oral tales have literary origins. It is possible that the source of the

Pañcatantra was the common treasury of ancient Indian tales, both oral and literary. What is

certain, however, is the impact this work has had on others.

In India the Pañcatantra has been translated into nearly every major Indian language.

Franklin Edgerton observes in The Panchatantra Reconstructed, New Haven: Oriental

9
(Bk I, v.177)
10
‘The Pancatantra in Modern Indian Folklore,’ Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1919, 39: 1-54.
Society, 1924, ‘No other collection of stories has become so popular throughout the length

and breadth of India. It has been worked over again and again, expanded, abstracted, turned

into verse, retold in prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated

into Sanskrit.’ Even more significantly, individual stories associated with the Pañcatantra

have become part of common Indian folklore transmitted orally from parents to children

down the centuries.

The Pañcatantra spread at an earlier time and more extensively in the world than any

other piece of Indian literature resulting in over 200 versions in more than 50 languages. A

major branch of this translation arose from the Pahlavi translation known as Kalilah &

Dimnah.

The story of the migration of the tales of Kalilah & Dimnah to the West begins in the

mid-sixth century AD. Anushirvan, the Sasanian King of Iran was an intellectual, interested

in philosophy and the sciences. In the course of his research and study he learned of a book of

instructions and rules of conduct for princes and kings which had been written by Indian

philosophers and included stories about animals. This book was preserved in the Imperial

library in India. He ordered Buzurjmihr, his minister, to find a suitable learned person who

could speak the languages of India to go and procure the book for him. The physician Burzoe

(or Burzoye) was chosen for the mission and the king’s astrologers fixed an auspicious date

for his departure. (A second version of the tale states that he, in fact, originally went to India

to find certain plants for use in making a preparation capable of raising the dead, then found

that the allegorical reference was to the acquiring of knowledge from literature). In any case,

after arriving in India Burzoe made many friends, one of whom was an Indian sage with

access to the books in the king’s library. Burzoe succeeded, with his friend’s help, in

translating the required manuscript from Sanskrit into Pahlavi, and then he returned to Iran.
The king was delighted with his work and showered gifts upon him. Burzoe requested, as his

reward, that his biography be inserted into the beginning of the book.

Thus, the basic 14 chapters of the book read as follows:

The Biography of Burzoe is added at the beginning as he had requested.

1) The Lion and the Ox (or two friends between whom a crafty interloper sows

dissension).

after which comes The Defense of Dimna (a later addition).

2) The Ring-dove (or the love of sincere friends).

3) The Owls and the Crows (or an enemy of whom one should beware).

4) The Monkey and the Tortoise (or the man who, having grasped something lets it

slip).

5) The Ascetic and the Weasel (or the hasty man).

6) The Mouse and the Cat (or the man who has many enemies).

7) The King and the Bird (or the vindictive man whom one should not trust).

8) The Lion and the Jackal (or the man who seeks to be reconciled with one whom he

has ill-treated).

9) The Wise Bilar and Queen Ilar (another story cautioning against hasty decisions).

10) The Lioness and the Horseman (or the man who refrains from hurting another

because of the harm he would thereby bring upon himself).

11) The Ascetic and his Guest (or the man who abandons his craft for another and

forgets the first without learning the second).

12) The Traveler and the Goldsmith (or the man who does good to those who are

unworthy).

13) The King’s Son and his Companions (showing that God’s decrees are inevitable).
 14) The Dove, the Fox and the Heron (or the man who can give good advice to others

but not to himself).

Some additional chapters appear in some manuscripts, where parenthetical stories

have been extracted and made into separate chapters. Likewise, some of the stories have

become famous in their own right and appear separately from the main collection of stories or

incorporated into entirely new collections (e.g. the medieval Latin Gesta Romanorum, La

Fontaine’s Fables, 1678).

Kalilah & Dimnah is made up of three elements; Indian, Persian and Arabic. Twelve

chapters are of Indian and Buddhist origin. The chapter of The Lion and the Ox plus the 4th,

5th, 6th, and 7th chapters above correspond to the five chapters of the Panchatantra. A story of

the Panchatantra, The Traveler and the Goldsmith, became a chapter in Kalilah & Dimnah.

The Prince and his Companions comes from an unknown Indian legend. Chapters 8, 9 & 10

above are stories found in the Mahabharata and two, Chapters 11 & 12 above, appear to have

disappeared from Indian literature altogether. Three chapters are considered to be Persian;

The Mission of Borzoe, The Biography of Borzoe and The King of the Mice, only found in the

old Syriac version. Six chapters appear first in the Arabic version; The Preface of Ali ibn ash-

Shah the Persian, Introduction of Ibn al-Muqaffa, The Ascetic and his Guest, The Dove, the

Fox and the Heron, The Heron and the Duck, (In the Hebrew version this is called Chapter of

the Birds). It was found by de Sacy in one Arabic manuscript but he says it was added and

was not a part of the original book. Keith-Falconer, 1885, also mentions this story in not very

complementary terms as follows; ‘An outline of this stupid story is given by Benfey in his

Einleitung zur Pantschatantra pp.607-609’ (he doesn’t say why he thinks it’s stupid!), and

finally, The Defence of Dimna, which is not Indian at all but Arabic and first appears in Ibn
al-Muqaffa’s version 11 . The statement at the end of The Lion and the Ox that Dimna’s

treachery was discovered is an Arabic addition.

Apart from the old Syriac, Tibetan and Chinese, every other version derives from the

Arabic translation of Ibn al-Muqaffa. His own story is a tragic one. Ibn al-Muqaffa was born

in AD725 approx (d. 760AD) in Fars Province and raised as a Zoroastrian. His father had

been appointed receiver of the revenue of Fars, but was convicted of embezzling public

money and had been tortured which resulted in his hand becoming shriveled and so was

given the name al-Muqaffa (the shriveled). His real name was Daduyeh. Ibn al-Moqaffa

became a Muslim and worked as secretary of Isa whose brother Abdullah fought his nephew

al-Mansour to take the caliphate from him, and failing, fled to his brothers Isa and Sulayman

for refuge. They asked Ibn al-Muqaffa to write a letter of pardon for al-Mansour to sign

which made him so angry that when he found out who had written it, he ordered Sufyan

(governor of al-Basra and arch-enemy of Ibn al-Muqaffa) to put Ibn al-Muqaffa to death. One

day Isa sent him to Sufyan’s house on business. He was seen entering Sufyan’s house but he

never came out again. One account says Sufyan chopped him up and threw him into a hot

oven, in another he is said to have been locked in the bath until he suffocated.

Numerous translations were made from the work of the ill-fated Ibn al-Muqaffa. The

extent and lineage of these can be better appreciated by referring to the table.

As the Old Syriac version was incomplete and the Pahlavi version was lost, apart

from the Sanskrit versions only the Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese versions originated from

the original Sanskrit. The later versions derived from Ibn al-Muqaffa’s translation of the lost

Pahlavi. Three exceptions are the Ancien Fonds (1489), taken from the Old Syriac, Anton

Schiefner’s German rendering of tales found by him in Tibetan writings, and thirdly the

French translations of Stan. Julien who discovered 2 Chinese encyclopedias containing a

11
8th century AD translation from Pahlavi into Arabic.
number of Indian tales translated into Chinese. The oldest of these encyclopedias was

finished in AD668. From one of these collections he selected a number of such tales and

published them under the title, Les Avadanas, Contes et Apologues Indiens, etc. (Paris, 1859).

Jackson, Mary V. , Engines of Instruction, Mischief and Magic; Children’s Literature in

England from its Beginnings to 1839, University of Nebraska Press, 1989, p.59-60 & foll.

In 1326 the first Latin manuscript of the great medieval storybook Gesta Romanorum;

Deeds or Acts of the Romans- a collection of sermon stories, appeared in England. It was first

printed in the 15th century; the first illustrated Dutch version was published in 1481. Its most

popular tales were issued separately from the 1500s to the 1900s. To Medieval and

Renaissance audiences of all classes and to the young and the lowly in the early 19th century,

it was a fount of delight & wonder; a motley of jostling cultures and eras:- saints, martyrs,

adventures of various European nobility & tales by Bidpai, a corruption of Bidbah- title of the

court scholar in ancient Indian princedoms. Such tales originated in the Sanskrit Panchatantra

& eventually found their way into Arabic as the Fables of Pilpay- shows cross fertilization of

Far Eastern, Arabic and European cultures which started with the Crusades, 3 major ones

occurring between 1095 and 1192.

It will be seen that while the Thousand and One Nights (translated in Baghdad from

the Persian into Arabic in the 10th century AD) was known mainly by its own name or as

Arabian Nights’ Entertainment when it appeared in Europe, Kalilah & Dimnah was known

under different names in different translations. Nasrullah’s Persian translation of Ibn al-

Muqaffa (circa 1120AD) led to the versions known as Anwar-e Suhaili (end of 15th C AD),

Iyar-e Danesh (1591) and a Turkish translation, Humayun-namah (early 16th C AD), from

which arose Spanish and French translations. The other main branch of translation came via

Hebrew to Latin in the form of the Directorium of John of Capua and thence to German in
Graf Eberhard’s 1480 translation, to Spanish under the title of Exemplario contra los engaños

y peligros del mundo, to Italian as Moral Filosophia & Trattati Diversi di Sendebar Indiano

Philosopho Morale (Venice 1552) and Discursi degli animali ragionanti tra loro (Venice,

1548), and, by the 17th century AD, into English, Danish and Dutch.

In this way, the stories of the Pañcatantra and Mahabharata via Kalilah & Dimnah

and all its variations and offshoots, spread across vast areas of the globe. Edgerton has traced

several individual Pañcatantra stories that have found their way, often much transformed,

into Western folk traditions (Pañcatantra 1965, rev. edition of Edgerton 1924, repr. Delhi:

Orient Paperback 1973). One example of such a story is the tale of the Brahmin, mongoose

and snake (the frame story of Pañcatantra’s Book V, or The Ascetic and the Weasel of

Kalilah & Dimnah), whose characters were transformed into a knight, dog, and wolf in a

Welsh folktale; Prince Llewellyn and his dog Gelert, as told in William R. Spencer’s ballad

‘Bedd Gellert.’ In the Welsh version the dog killed a wolf that was trying to attack his

master’s child and was killed in turn by the master, who, seeing the dog’s bloody mouth,

thought that it had eaten the child. Edgerton has traced this transformation to the Arabic

version that turned the Brahmin into a priest and the mongoose, an unfamiliar animal, into a

weasel. In the Arabic collection of stories Sindibad, from 1001 Nights, which became popular

throughout Europe under the title Seven Sages of Rome, the priest turns into a knight and the

weasel a dog. It appears that as it entered the popular folklore of Wales the snake was

changed into a wolf, a more natural opponent of a dog, and this led to the Welsh proverb

about hasty action; ‘You’ll regret it like the man who killed his dog.’

As many of these collections were produced in illustrated editions, they attracted the

attention of children. Ibn al-Muqaffa mentions this when he says in his introduction that the

author composed the book with four objectives in mind:

 ‘To render it attractive to the young reader by employing birds and animals in the

stories.

To capture the attention of rulers by the conduct of the animals who are faced with

similar dilemmas and circumstances.

To provide entertainment to all peoples and to arouse their curiosity, thereby enabling

the book to be preserved through the ages.

And to provide the philosophers of the future a forum for discussion and speculation.’

The Lion and the Ox, the first chapter of the original Kalila wa Dimna is the longest

section of the book. The story, taken from the Panchatantra, is about friendship, mistrust,

and treachery; it is meant to counsel rulers to work out their own problems and not rely on the

advice of ministers. The events revolve around the court of the lion, which includes two

jackals, Kalila and Dimna. Dimna, who aspires to higher rank in the court, helps the lion

overcome his fear of the ox, who eventually becomes the boon companion of the lion. Dimna

is jealous of this friendship and finds his influence with the lion being replaced by that of the

ox. He resorts to treachery, telling each that the other is about to kill him. They believe these

lies and engage in a long fight, at the end of which the lion kills the ox.

This parable contains numerous tales within tales told by the characters, including the

story of the fox and the drum, which illustrates that not everyone who makes noise is

dangerous. The stories of the rams and the ascetic and of the owner of the brothel who tries to

poison the lover of her favorite courtesan but is herself killed in the process, prove that greed

does not always pay. The complicated affairs of the shoemaker, the barber, and their wives

are resolved by truth. The tale of the crab and the heron and that of the lion and the hare teach

that one should not trust the enemy. The fable of the three fish and the fisherman illustrates

the detrimental results of procrastination.( from Panchatantra, Bk.1, On Causing Dissension

among Allies, Sub-story 8.2., p.52. This story was found as a modern Persian language
children’s book in one of the public libraries in Edinburgh!) The parable of the lion, the crow,

the wolf, the jackal, and the camel cautions against foolishness and conspiracy among

friends. The story of the geese and the tortoise teaches the importance of listening to wise

counsel. [slide/picture?] (from Panchatantra, Bk.1, On Causing Dissension among Allies,

Sub-story 8.1., p.51) As it’s a short story I’d like to retell it here. Dimna told it to the ox when

trying to persuade him that the lion intended to kill him, saying that if the ox didn’t listen to

advice, his fate would be like that of the tortoise who ignored his friends.

The tortoise lived in a marsh together with two geese. They were good friends and

enjoyed one another’s company. But when the marsh began to dry up, the geese decided to

seek another lake to build their nest. The tortoise asked them to devise a plan so that he, too,

could go with them and not be left behind to die. The geese told him that if he took hold of

the middle of a stick with his mouth and they held its ends in their beaks, they could transport

him. But, they warned, he would have to observe absolute silence during the flight.

The tortoise promised to keep quiet and took the stick in his mouth. The geese began

to fly, carrying the tortoise with them. They passed over a group of villagers who were

amazed by this strange sight; they began to laugh and make fun of the tortoise. The tortoise

forgot his promise and opened his mouth to answer them. He let go of the stick and fell to his

death.’ This story always sticks in my mind as it was in the Persian language course books

which we used when I was a student at Tehran University.

To note two more examples from the first chapter of Kalila wa Dimna, the tale of the

monkeys and the glowworm shows that only the wise and prudent can be taught. The story of

the simpleton and the rogue illustrates that the crafty person often falls into his own snare. So

human nature is put under the microscope in an entertaining way for everyone to learn and

benefit from.
 Esin Atıl says in her introduction to Kalila wa Dimna, Selected Stories, that it is more

than a book of parables or a mirror for princes and that it symbolizes man’s search for truth

and justice, challenging his perception of reality on the one hand and the extent of his

imagination on the other. She says that the essence of its worldwide popularity and its appeal

to all peoples at all times arises from the underlying theme that all creatures, big or small, are

a part of creation and each society is a microcosm of a much larger entity that controls the

destiny of its members.

1.2.2 Stories of KwaD

The stories entered Europe with a large number coming via Hebrew and Latin

translation. (Antoine Galland 1001 Nights 1704).

STORIES:

p.169. The Ascetic and the Weasel (partly summarized- story in past tense) Check for

Welsh story. (p.xli, p.11 Panchatantra file).

The king asked the philosopher to tell a story of the man who does things too soon,

and does them before he examines them and considers how the end will be. The philosopher

told of the ascetic and his wife who lived in Jurjan. For a long time they wanted to have a

child and finally the wife became pregnant. The ascetic was so excited that he told his wife

she would have a good-looking son and he would teach him this thing and that thing. His

wife was upset when she heard these words and told him not to speak such things when they

didn’t know yet if the child would be born male or female, dead or alive. She told him they

should leave everything in God’s hands because if someone does things too soon and does

them before examining them there will occur the same misfortune as that which happened to

the ascetic when he lost his honey and oil. The man asked his wife to tell him the story. She

said, ‘There was an ascetic who received honey and oil every day from the governor of his
town. Whatever he had over he used to pour into an earthenware vessel which he hung above

his bed. One day he was lying on his bed daydreaming about how he could build his fortune

from selling the honey and oil and buying goats and later buying cows and sowing his fields

and later having a lot of crops and servants and then getting married and having a son who

would become secretary to the king, all the while brandishing a staff in his hand as he was

talking, until, in his excitement he struck the vessel with the stick and broke it and all the

honey and oil ran on his head. So al his plans came to naught.’ When the ascetic heard this

story he kept quiet. After a while their son was born as he had hoped. One day his wife left

the boy in his charge, but one of the chiefs of the town called for him on an urgent message

and he went out and left the boy alone with the weasel who used to help them with

everything. A snake appeared and tried to kill the boy but the weasel fought it and killed it

and in the process got covered with blood. When the ascetic returned and saw the weasel he

thought the boy had been killed and immediately killed the weasel. Then he saw the boy was

still alive and was ashamed and wished his son had not been born so he wouldn’t have

committed a murder. His wife returned and chided him, saying, ‘Did I not tell you not to be

hasty and do things too soon before you had tried them, lest you should reap a bad end?

p.186. chapter 9. The Lion and the Jackal → it’s extremely long and rambling.

There was once a jackal who was an ascetic and refused to hunt and eat meat, only

living on herbs and water. A lion king heard of him and sent for him and asked him to

become his steward. The jackal tried to escape from this service, as he was afraid of possible

envy of others and the wrath of the king. The king promised that he wouldn’t listen to

talebearers or be turned against the jackal by envy and finally the jackal greed. All the king’s

wealth was placed in his management and everything went well and the king gave him more

power and honors. Because of this he made enemies who constantly plotted against him. One

day they paid the cook to hide a piece of the king’s meat in the jackal’s house and when the
king wanted to eat, it could not be found. As the jackal had been entrusted with the meat they

now began to blame him and say that if he could not be entrusted with this how could he be

trusted with any important matter and that if they found the meat in his house it would prove

that he was a fraud and liar. When they found the meat the jackal was accused and taken to

prison and the king angrily sentenced him to death. however, the lion’s mother, seeing that he

had acted hastily, went and talked to her son and persuaded him not to kill the jackal. The

king spared the jackal and got all the plotters to confess their part by saying they would be

rewarded. After this he begged the jackal’s forgiveness and asked him to continue as before,

but the jackal said he could no longer trust the king and no longer wanted to serve him.

Finally after a lot of talk the king persuaded the jackal to continue as his steward.

Chapter 11. The Lioness and the Jackal or the story of the Horseman, the Lioness and

the Jackal. A lioness went out hunting one day and while she was gone a horseman came

with bow and arrow and shot and killed and skinned her cubs and took their hides. When the

lioness came back and saw them she wept and wailed and her neighbor called Jackal came

and asked her what had happened. When the jackal heard her story, instead of sympathizing,

asked her what she had been feeding on all her life and didn’t they have mothers who grieved

for them. The lioness felt that this was punishment for her sins and from then on stopped

hunting and eating meat, becoming totally vegetarian and eating fruit. There was a certain

jackal who used to feed on the fruits of the trees and when he saw the fruits diminished and

one day saw the lioness feeding on them he knew the blessing had been taken from the fruit

since violence had entered; the lioness had started doing something alien to her nature. And

he began to say ‘Woe to the trees and those that get food from them, since the violence of

another has overtaken them and they are doomed to perish.’

p.217. Chapter 13. The Hermit and the Traveler.

 A chapter which shows that he who understands something and leaves it and takes to

something else forgets the first without learning the second.

In a certain region lived a hermit. One day a traveler came to see him and gave

him some fruit and they sat and ate and talked together. The traveler admired the hermit’s

language and wanted to learn to speak as the hermit, but the hermit warned him that if he

wasn’t careful the same thing would happen to him as what happened to the crow. When the

crow saw a hen strutting as she walked he wanted to walk like her and began to copy her step.

But he did not succeed and forgot his former pace, continually stumbling. In practising a

language to which you are not accustomed , you may forget the one to which you are

accustomed, and be considered foolish and without knowledge or intelligence for practising

what neither you nor your parents before you were brought up to.

Seh Mahi: from the series of children’s stories based on ancient texts: 2 Kalilah & Dimnah.

Se Mahi- Stories in Persian from Kalileh & Dimnah, London: Al-Hoda.

View publication stats