Introduction

The Panchatantra teaches 'the art of governing and of living wisely' through animal fables. Its five books tell how a cunning jackal sets a lion and a bull, once friends, against each other; how a crow, a mouse, a tortoise and a deer become friends and rescue one another; how the war between crows and owls teaches the strategies of war and peace; how a monkey talks his way out of a crocodile's jaws; and what comes of acting rashly. Stories are framed within stories, and the animals talk like people and quote proverbs. Carried through Persian and Arabic into Europe, the book has been translated into more than fifty languages, and La Fontaine's fables and the Thousand and One Nights both draw on it.