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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 3rd century
Hijri, 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 [de] 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]

Author and chronology

The prelude section of the Panchatantra identifies an octogenarian Brahmin named
Vishnusharma (IAST: Viṣṇuśarman) as its author.[3][17] He is stated to be teaching the
principles of good government to three princes of Amarasakti. It is unclear, states Patrick
Olivelle, a professor of Sanskrit and Indian religions, if Vishnusharma was a real person or
himself a literary invention. Some South Indian recensions of the text, as well as Southeast
Asian versions of Panchatantra attribute the text to Vasubhaga, states Olivelle.[3] Based on
the content and mention of the same name in other texts dated to ancient and medieval era
centuries, most scholars agree that Vishnusharma is a fictitious name. Olivelle and other
scholars state that regardless of who the author was, it is likely "the author was a Hindu, and
not a Buddhist, nor Jain", but it is unlikely that the author was a devotee of Hindu god Vishnu
because the text neither expresses any sentiments against other Hindu deities such as Shiva,
Indra and others, nor does it avoid invoking them with reverence.[21][22]
 Various locations where the text was composed have been proposed but this has been
controversial. Some of the proposed locations include Kashmir, Southwestern or South India.
[3] The text's original language was likely Sanskrit. Though the text is now known as
Panchatantra, the title found in old manuscript versions varies regionally, and includes names
such as Tantrakhyayika, Panchakhyanaka, Panchakhyana and Tantropakhyana. The suffix
akhyayika and akhyanaka mean "little story" or "little story book" in Sanskrit.[23]

The text was translated into Pahlavi in 550 CE, which forms the latest limit of the text's
existence. The earliest limit is uncertain. It quotes identical verses from Arthasastra, which is
broadly accepted to have been completed by the early centuries of the common era.
According to Olivelle, "the current scholarly consensus places the Panchatantra around 300
CE, although we should remind ourselves that this is only an educated guess".[3] The text
quotes from older genre of Indian literature, and legends with anthropomorphic animals are
found in more ancient texts dated to the early centuries of the 1st millennium BCE such as the
chapter 4.1 of the Chandogya Upanishad.[24] According to Gillian Adams, Panchatantra may
be a product of the Vedic period, but its age cannot be ascertained with confidence because
"the original Sanskrit version has been lost".[25]

Content
For lists of stories in the Panchatantra, see List of Panchatantra stories.
What is learning whose attaining,
Sees no passion wane, no reigning
Love and self-control?
Does not make the mind a menial,
Finds in virtue no congenial
Path and final goal?
Whose attaining is but straining
For a name, and never gaining
Fame or peace of soul?

—Panchatantra: Smart, The Jackal

Book 1: The Loss of Friends
Translator: Arthur William Ryder[26]
 The Panchatantra is a series of inter-woven fables, many of which deploy metaphors of
anthropomorphized animals with human virtues and vices.[27] Its narrative illustrates, for the
benefit of three ignorant princes, the central Hindu principles of nīti.[28] While nīti is hard to
translate, it roughly means prudent worldly conduct, or "the wise conduct of life".[29]

Apart from a short introduction, it consists of five parts. Each part contains a main story,
called the frame story, which in turn contains several embedded stories, as one character
narrates a story to another. Often these stories contain further embedded stories.[30][31] The
stories operate like a succession of Russian dolls, one narrative opening within another,
sometimes three or four deep. Besides the stories, the characters also quote various
epigrammatic verses to make their point.[32]

The five books have their own subtitles.[33]

Panchatantra
Book subtitle Translation Ryder's translation[33] Olivelle's translation[34]
1. Mitra-bheda Dissonance Among Friends The Loss of Friends On Causing
Dissension among Allies
2. Mitra-lābha Achievement of friend(s) (Advantages of friendship) The Winning
of Friends On Securing Allies
3. KākolūkīyamThe story of Crows and Owls On Crows and Owls On War and
Peace: The story of the crows and the owls
4. Labdhapraṇāśam Loss of what (desired) was attained. Loss of Gains On Losing
What You have Gained
5. Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ To do without pre-examination Ill-Considered Action On
Hasty Actions
Book 1: Mitra-bheda
If loving kindness be not shown,
to friends and souls in pain,
to teachers, servants, and one's self,
what use in life, what gain?

—Panchatantra, Book 1
Translator: Arthur William Ryder[35]
 The first treatise features a jackal named Damanaka, as the unemployed minister in a
kingdom ruled by a lion. He, along with his moralizing sidekick named Karataka, conspire to
break up alliances and friendships of the lion king. A series of fables describe the conspiracies
and causes that lead to close and inseparable friends breaking up.[36]

The Book 1 contains over thirty fables, with the version Arthur Ryder translated
containing 34: The Loss of Friends, The Wedge-Pulling Monkey, The Jackal and the War-
Drum, Merchant Strong-Tooth, Godly and June, The Jackal at the Ram-Fight, The Weaver's
Wife, How the Crow-Hen Killed the Black Snake, The Heron that Liked Crab-Meat,
Numskull and the Rabbit, The Weaver Who Loved a Princess, The Ungrateful Man, Leap and
Creep, The Blue Jackal, Passion and the Owl, Ugly's Trust Abused, The Lion and the
Carpenter, The Plover Who Fought the Ocean, Shell-Neck Slim and Grim, Forethought
Readywit and Fatalist, The Duel Between Elephant and Sparrow, The Shrewd Old Gander,
The Lion and the Ram, Smart the Jackal, The Monk Who Left His Body Behind, The Girl
Who Married a Snake, Poor Blossom, The Unteachable Monkey, Right-Mind and Wrong-
Mind, A Remedy Worse than the Disease, The Mice That Ate Iron, The Results of Education,
The Sensible Enemy, The Foolish Friend.[33]

It is the longest of the five books, making up roughly 45% of the work's length.[37]

Book 2: Mitra-samprāpti
The second treatise is quite different in structure than the remaining books, states
Olivelle, as it does not truly embed fables. It is a collection of adventures of four characters: a
crow (scavenger, not a predator, airborne habits), a mouse (tiny, underground habits), a turtle
(slow, water habits) and a deer (a grazing animal viewed by other animals as prey, land
habits). The overall focus of the book is the reverse of the first book. Its theme is to
emphasize the importance of friendships, team work, and alliances. It teaches, "weak animals
with very different skills, working together can accomplish what they cannot when they work
alone", according to Olivelle.[38] United through their cooperation and in their mutual
support, the fables describe how they are able to outwit all external threats and prosper.[38]

The second book contains ten fables: The Winning of Friends, The Bharunda Birds,
Gold's Gloom, Mother Shandilee's Bargain, Self-defeating Forethought, Mister Duly, Soft, the
Weaver, Hang-Ball and Greedy, The Mice That Set Elephant Free, Spot's Captivity.[33]
 Book 2 makes up about 22% of the total length.[37]

Book 3: Kākolūkīyam

A Panchatantra manuscript page

The third treatise discusses war and peace, presenting through animal characters a moral
about the battle of wits being a strategic means to neutralize a vastly superior opponent's
army. The thesis in this treatise is that a battle of wits is a more potent force than a battle of
swords.[39] The choice of animals embeds a metaphor of a war between good versus evil, and
light versus darkness. Crows are good, weaker and smaller in number and are creatures of the
day (light), while owls are presented as evil, numerous and stronger creatures of the night
(darkness).[39] The crow king listens to the witty and wise counsel of Ciramjivin, while the
owl king ignores the counsel of Raktaksa. The good crows win.[39]

The fables in the third book, as well as others, do not strictly limit to matters of war and
peace. Some present fables that demonstrate how different characters have different needs and
motives, which is subjectively rational from each character's viewpoint, and that addressing
these needs can empower peaceful relationships even if they start off in a different way.[39]
For example, in the fable The Old Man the Young Wife, the text relates a story wherein an
old man marries a young woman from a penniless family.[40] The young woman detests his
appearance so much that she refuses to even look at him let alone consummate their marriage.
[41] One night, while she sleeps in the same bed with her back facing the old man, a thief
enters their house. She is scared, turns over, and for security embraces the man. This thrills
every limb of the old man. He feels grateful to the thief for making his young wife hold him at
last. The aged man rises and profusely thanks the thief, requesting the intruder to take
whatever he desires.[40][41][42]

The third book contains eighteen fables in Ryder translation: Crows and Owls, How the
Birds Picked a King, How the Rabbit Fooled the Elephant, The Cat's Judgment, The
Brahmin's Goat, The Snake and the Ants, The Snake Who Paid Cash, The Unsocial Swans,
The Self-sacrificing Dove, The Old Man with the Young Wife, The Brahmin, The Thief and
the Ghost, The Snake in the Prince's Belly, The Gullible Carpenter, Mouse-Maid Made
Mouse, The Bird with Golden Dung, The Cave That Talked, The Frog That Rode Snakeback,
The Butter-blinded Brahmin.[33]

This is about 26% of the total length.[37]

Book 4: Labdhapraṇāśam
The book four of the Panchatantra is a simpler compilation of ancient moral-filled
fables. These, states Olivelle, teach messages such as "a bird in hand is worth two in the
bush".[43] They caution the reader to avoid succumbing to peer pressure and cunning intent
wrapped in soothing words. The book is different from the first three, in that the earlier books
give positive examples of ethical behavior offering examples and actions "to do". In contrast,
book four presents negative examples with consequences, offering examples and actions "to
avoid, to watch out for".[43]

The fourth book contains thirteen fables in Ryder translation: Loss of Gains, The
Monkey and the Crocodile, Handsome and Theodore, Flop-Ear and Dusty, The Potter
Militant, The Jackal Who Killed No Elephants, The Ungrateful Wife, King Joy and Secretary
Splendor, The Ass in the Tiger-Skin, The Farmer's Wife, The Pert Hen-Sparrow, How
Supersmart Ate the Elephant, The Dog Who Went Abroad.[33]

Book 4, along with Book 5, is very short. Together the last two books constitute about
7% of the total text.[31]

Book 5: Aparīkṣitakārakaṃ

Book 5 of the Panchatantra includes a story about a mongoose and a snake, which was
likely an inspiration for the story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling.[44]
Book five of the text is, like book four, a simpler compilation of moral-filled fables.
These also present negative examples with consequences, offering examples and actions for
the reader to ponder, avoid, and watch out for. The lessons in this last book include "get facts,
be patient, don't act in haste then regret later", "don't build castles in the air".[45] The book
five is also unusual in that almost all its characters are humans, unlike the first four where the
characters are predominantly anthropomorphized animals. According to Olivelle, it may be
that the text's ancient author sought to bring the reader out of the fantasy world of talking and
pondering animals into the realities of the human world.[45]

The fifth book contains twelve fables about hasty actions or jumping to conclusions
without establishing facts and proper due diligence. In Ryder translation, they are: Ill-
considered Action, The Loyal Mongoose, The Four Treasure-Seekers, The Lion-Makers,
Hundred-Wit Thousand-Wit and Single-Wit, The Musical Donkey, Slow the Weaver, The
Brahman's Dream, The Unforgiving Monkey, The Credulous Fiend, The Three-Breasted
Princess, The Fiend Who Washed His Feet.[33]

One of the fables in this book is the story of a woman and a mongoose. She leaves her
child with a mongoose friend. When she returns, she sees blood on the mongoose's mouth,
and kills the friend, believing the animal killed her child. The woman discovers her child
alive, and learns that the blood on the mongoose mouth came from it biting the snake while
defending her child from the snake's attack. She regrets having killed the friend because of her
hasty action.

Links with other fables

The fables of Panchatantra are found in numerous world languages. It is also considered
partly the origin of European secondary works, such as folk tale motifs found in Boccaccio,
La Fontaine and the works of Grimm Brothers.[46][47] For a while, this had led to the
hypothesis that popular worldwide animal-based fables had origins in India and the Middle
East.[46] According to Max Muller,

Sanskrit literature is very rich in fables and stories; no other literature can vie with it in
that respect; nay, it is extremely likely that fables, in particular animal fables, had their
principal source in India.

— Max Muller, On the Migration of Fables[48]

This monocausal hypothesis has now been generally discarded in favor of polygenetic
hypothesis which states that fable motifs had independent origins in many ancient human
cultures, some of which have common roots and some influenced by co-sharing of fables. The
shared fables implied morals that appealed to communities separated by large distances and
these fables were therefore retained, transmitted over human generations with local variations.
[46][49] However, many post-medieval era authors explicitly credit their inspirations to texts
such as "Bidpai" and "Pilpay, the Indian sage" that are known to be based on the
Panchatantra.[48]

According to Niklas Bengtsson, even though India being the exclusive original source
of animal fables is no longer taken seriously, the ancient classic Panchatantra, "which new
folklore research continues to illuminate, was certainly the first work ever written down for
children, and this in itself means that the Indian influence has been enormous [on fables
around the world], not only on the genres of fables and fairy tales, but on those genres as
taken up in children's literature".[50] According to Adams and Bottigheimer, the fables of
Panchatantra are known in at least 38 languages around the world in 112 versions by Jacob's
old estimate, and its relationship with Mesopotamian and Greek fables is hotly debated in part
because the original manuscripts of all three ancient texts have not survived.[51] Olivelle
states that there are 200 versions of the text in more than 50 languages around the world, in
addition to a version in nearly every major language of India.[9]

Scholars have noted the strong similarity between a few of the stories in The
Panchatantra and Aesop's Fables. Examples are The Ass in the Panther's Skin and The Ass
without Heart and Ears.[52] The Broken Pot is similar to Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail,
[53] The Gold-Giving Snake is similar to Aesop's The Man and the Serpent and Le Paysan et
Dame serpent by Marie de France (Fables)[54] Other well-known stories include The Tortoise
and The Geese and The Tiger, the Brahmin and the Jackal. Similar animal fables are found in
most cultures of the world, although some folklorists view India as the prime source.[55][56]
The Panchatantra has been a source of the world's fable literature.[57]

The French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine acknowledged his indebtedness to the work in
the introduction to his Second Fables:

"This is a second book of fables that I present to the public... I have to acknowledge that
the greatest part is inspired from Pilpay, an Indian Sage".[58]
The Panchatantra is the origin also of several stories in Arabian Nights, Sindbad, and of
many Western nursery rhymes and ballads.[59]

Origins and function

 The evil jackal Damanaka meets the innocent bull Sañjīvaka. Indian painting, 1610.
In the Indian tradition, The Panchatantra is a nītiśāstra. Nīti can be roughly translated as
"the wise conduct of life"[29] and a śāstra is a technical or scientific treatise; thus it is
considered a treatise on political science and human conduct. Its literary sources are "the
expert tradition of political science and the folk and literary traditions of storytelling". It
draws from the Dharma and Artha śāstras, quoting them extensively.[60] 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".[29]

The Panchatantra shares many stories in common with the Buddhist Jataka tales,
purportedly told by the historical Buddha before his death around 400 BCE. As the scholar
Patrick Olivelle writes, "It is clear that the Buddhists did not invent the stories. [...] It is quite
uncertain whether the author of [the Panchatantra] borrowed his stories from the Jātakas or
the Mahābhārata, or whether he was tapping into a common treasury of tales, both oral and
literary, of ancient India."[60] Many scholars believe the tales were based on earlier oral folk
traditions, which were finally written down, although there is no conclusive evidence.[61] In
the early 20th century, W. Norman Brown found that many folk tales in India appeared to be
borrowed from literary sources and not vice versa.[62]

Panchatantra illustration in Nalanda Temple, 7th century CE (Turtle and the Geese)
An early Western scholar who studied The Panchatantra was Dr. Johannes Hertel, who
thought the book had a Machiavellian character. Similarly, Edgerton noted that "the so-called
'morals' of the stories have no bearing on morality; they are unmoral, and often immoral. They
glorify shrewdness and practical wisdom, in the affairs of life, and especially of politics, of
government."[52] Other scholars dismiss this assessment as one-sided, and view the stories as
teaching dharma, or proper moral conduct.[63] Also:[64]

On the surface, the Pañcatantra presents stories and sayings which favor the outwitting
of roguery, and practical intelligence rather than virtue. However, [..] From this viewpoint the
tales of the Pañcatantra are eminently ethical. [...] the prevailing mood promotes an earthy,
moral, rational, and unsentimental ability to learn from repeated experience[.]

According to Olivelle, "Indeed, the current scholarly debate regarding the intent and
purpose of the 'Pañcatantra' — whether it supports unscrupulous Machiavellian politics or
demands ethical conduct from those holding high office — underscores the rich ambiguity of
the text".[60] Konrad Meisig states that the Panchatantra has been incorrectly represented by
some as "an entertaining textbook for the education of princes in the Machiavellian rules of
Arthasastra", but instead it is a book for the "Little Man" to develop "Niti" (social ethics,
prudent behavior, shrewdness) in their pursuit of Artha, and a work on social satire.[65]
According to Joseph Jacobs, "... if one thinks of it, the very raison d'être of the Fable is to
imply its moral without mentioning it."[66]

The Panchatantra, states Patrick Olivelle, 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."[9] In the Indian tradition, the work is a Shastra genre of
literature, more specifically a Nitishastra text.[9]

The text has been a source of studies on political thought in Hinduism, as well as the
management of Artha with a debate on virtues and vices.[67][68]

Metaphors and layered meanings

The Sanskrit version of the Panchatantra text gives names to the animal characters, but
these names are creative with double meanings.[69] The names connote the character
observable in nature but also map a human personality that a reader can readily identify. For
example, the deer characters are presented as a metaphor for the charming, innocent, peaceful
and tranquil personality who is a target for those who seek a prey to exploit, while the
crocodile is presented to symbolize dangerous intent hidden beneath a welcoming ambiance
(waters of a lotus flower-laden pond).[69] Dozens of different types of wildlife found in India
are thus named, and they constitute an array of symbolic characters in the Panchatantra. Thus,
the names of the animals evoke layered meaning that resonates with the reader, and the same
story can be read at different levels.[69]
 Cross-cultural migrations
See also: Hitopadesha

Early history based primarily on Edgerton (1924)

Adaptations and translations from Jacobs (1888); less reliable for early history
The work has gone through many different versions and translations from the sixth
century to the present day. The original Indian version was first translated into a foreign
language (Pahlavi) by Borzūya in 570CE, then into Arabic in 750. This Arabic version was
translated into several languages, including Syriac, Greek, Persian, Hebrew and Spanish,[70]
and thus became the source of versions in European languages, until the English translation
by Charles Wilkins of the Sanskrit Hitopadesha in 1787.

Early cross-cultural migrations

The Panchatantra approximated its current literary form within the 4th–6th centuries
CE, though originally written around 200 BCE. No Sanskrit texts before 1000 CE have
survived.[71] Buddhist monks on pilgrimage to India took the influential Sanskrit text
(probably both in oral and literary formats) north to Tibet and China and east to South East
Asia.[72] These led to versions in all Southeast Asian countries, including Tibetan, Chinese,
Mongolian, Javanese and Lao derivatives.[59]

How Borzuy brought the work from India

The foolish carpenter of Sarandib, hiding under the bed on which lie his wife and her
lover. She notices his foot and contrives a story to prove her innocence. Persian illustration of
the Kalileh and Dimneh, 1333.
The Panchatantra also migrated into the Middle East, through Iran, during the Sassanid
reign of Anoushiravan.[73][74] Around 550 CE his notable physician Borzuy (Burzuwaih)
translated the work from Sanskrit into the Pahlavi (Middle Persian language).[73] He
transliterated the main characters as Karirak ud Damanak.[75][76]

According to the story told in the Shāh Nāma (The Book of the Kings, Persia's late
10th-century national epic by Ferdowsi), Borzuy sought his king's permission to make a trip
to Hindustan in search of a mountain herb he had read about that is "mingled into a compound
and, when sprinkled over a corpse, it is immediately restored to life."[77] He did not find the
herb, but was told by a wise sage of

"a different interpretation. The herb is the scientist; science is the mountain,
everlastingly out of reach of the multitude. The corpse is the man without knowledge, for the
uninstructed man is everywhere lifeless. Through knowledge man becomes revivified."

The sage pointed to the book, and the visiting physician Borzuy translated the work
with the help of some Pandits (Brahmins).[77] According to Hans Bakker, Borzuy visited the
kingdom of Kannauj in north India during the 6th century in an era of intense exchange
between Persian and Indian royal courts, and he secretly translated a copy of the text then sent
it to the court of Anoushiravan in Persia, along with other cultural and technical knowledge.
[78]

Kalila wa Demna: Mid. Persian and Arabic versions

A page from Kelileh o Demneh depicts the jackal-vizier Damanaka ('Victor')/ Dimna
trying to persuade his lion-king that the honest bull-courtier, Shatraba(‫)شطربة‬, is a traitor.
Borzuy's translation of the Sanskrit version into Pahlavi arrived in Persia by the 6th
century, but this Middle Persian version is now lost. The book had become popular in
Sassanid, and was translated into Syriac and Arabic whose copies survive.[74] According to
Riedel, "the three preserved New Persian translations originated between the 10th and 12th
century", and are based on the 8th-century Arabic translation by Ibn al-Muqaffa of Borzuy's
work on Panchatantra. It is the 8th-century Kalila wa Demna text, states Riedel, that has been
the most influential of the known Arabic versions, not only in the Middle East, but also
through its translations into Greek, Hebrew and Old Spanish.[74]

The Persian Ibn al-Muqaffa' translated the Panchatantra (in Middle Persian: Kalilag-o
Demnag) from Middle Persian to Arabic as Kalīla wa Dimna. This is considered the first
masterpiece of "Arabic literary prose."[79]
 From the same 1429 Persian manuscript. Sañjīvaka/Schanzabeh, the innocent bull
courtier, is murdered unjustly by King Lion. The scheming jackal vizier [left] Damanaka
('Victor')/Dimna watches in full view of his shocked brother Karataka ('Horribly
Howling')/Kalila [right].

A page from the Arabic version of Kalila wa dimna, dated 1210 CE, illustrating the
King of the Crows conferring with his political advisors
The introduction of the first book of Kalila wa Demna is different from Panchatantra, in
being more elaborate and instead of king and his three sons studying in the Indian version, the
Persian version speaks of a merchant and his three sons who had squandered away their
father's wealth. The Persian version also makes an abrupt switch from the story of the three
sons to an injured ox, and thereafter parallels the Panchatantra.[80]

The two jackals' names transmogrified into Kalila and Dimna in the Persian version.
Perhaps because the first section constituted most of the work, or because translators could
find no simple equivalent in Zoroastrian Pahlavi for the concept expressed by the Sanskrit
word 'Panchatantra', the jackals' names, Kalila and Dimna, became the generic name for the
entire work in classical times.

After the first chapter, Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ inserted a new one, telling of Dimna's trial. The
jackal is suspected of instigating the death of the bull "Shanzabeh", a key character in the first
chapter. The trial lasts for two days without conclusion, until a tiger and leopard appear to
bear witness against Dimna. He is found guilty and put to death.

Ibn al-Muqaffa' inserted other additions and interpretations into his 750CE "re-telling"
(see Francois de Blois' Burzōy's voyage to India and the origin of the book Kalīlah wa
Dimnah). The political theorist Jennifer London suggests that he was expressing risky
political views in a metaphorical way. (Al-Muqaffa' was murdered within a few years of
completing his manuscript). London has analysed how Ibn al-Muqaffa' could have used his
version to make "frank political expression" at the 'Abbasid court (see J. London's "How To
Do Things With Fables: Ibn al-Muqaffas Frank Speech in Stories from Kalila wa Dimna,"
History of Political Thought XXIX: 2 (2008)).

The Arabic classic by Ibn al-Muqaffa

 See also: Safa Khulusi § Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa.27 and The Arabian_Nights

An illustration from a Syrian edition dated 1354. The rabbit fools the elephant king by
showing him the reflection of the moon.
Borzuy's 570 CE Pahlavi translation (Kalile va Demne, now lost) was translated into
Syriac. Nearly two centuries later, it was translated into Arabic by Ibn al-Muqaffa around 750
CE[81] under the Arabic title, Kalīla wa Dimna.[82] After the Arab invasion of Persia (Iran),
Ibn al-Muqaffa's version (two languages removed from the pre-Islamic Sanskrit original)
emerged as the pivotal surviving text that enriched world literature.[83] Ibn al-Muqaffa's
work is considered a model of the finest Arabic prose style,[84] and "is considered the first
masterpiece of Arabic literary prose."[79]

Some scholars believe that Ibn al-Muqaffa's translation of the second section,
illustrating the Sanskrit principle of Mitra Laabha (Gaining Friends), became the unifying
basis for the Brethren of Purity (Ikwhan al-Safa) — the anonymous 9th-century CE
encyclopedists whose prodigious literary effort, Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Sincerity,
codified Indian, Persian and Greek knowledge. A suggestion made by Goldziher, and later
written on by Philip K. Hitti in his History of the Arabs, proposes that "The appellation is
presumably taken from the story of the ringdove in Kalilah wa-Dimnah in which it is related
that a group of animals by acting as faithful friends (ikhwan al-safa) to one another escaped
the snares of the hunter." This story is mentioned as an exemplum when the Brethren speak of
mutual aid in one risaala (treatise), a crucial part of their system of ethics.

The bird lures fish and kills them, until he tries the same trick with a lobster. Illustration
from the editio princeps of the Latin version by John of Capua.
Spread to the rest of Europe
Almost all pre-modern European translations of the Panchatantra arise from this Arabic
version. From Arabic it was re-translated into Syriac in the 10th or 11th century, into Greek
(as Stephanites and Ichnelates) in 1080 by the Jewish Byzantine doctor Simeon Seth,[85] into
'modern' Persian by Abu'l-Ma'ali Nasrallah Munshi in 1121, and in 1252 into Spanish (old
Castilian, Calila e Dimna).
 Perhaps most importantly, it was translated into Hebrew by Rabbi Joel in the 12th
century. This Hebrew version was translated into Latin by John of Capua as Directorium
Humanae Vitae, or "Directory of Human Life", and printed in 1480, and became the source of
most European versions.[86] A German translation, Das Buch der Beispiele, of the
Panchatantra was printed in 1483, making this one of the earliest books to be printed by
Gutenberg's press after the Bible.[59]

The Latin version was translated into Italian by Antonfrancesco Doni in 1552. This
translation became the basis for the first English translation, in 1570: Sir Thomas North
translated it into Elizabethan English as The Fables of Bidpai: The Morall Philosophie of
Doni (reprinted by Joseph Jacobs, 1888).[15] La Fontaine published The Fables of Bidpai in
1679, based on "the Indian sage Pilpay".[59]