Description

Composed in India by a wise brahmin known in the West as Bidpai, Panchatantra (Five treatises) is an Indian anthology of stories and fables. Although purportedly about animals, the fables contain aphorisms celebrating intelligence, cunning, the rules of social life, and princely wisdom, and were intended to instruct the sons of rulers. First written in Sanskrit, the tales are dated in some sources to between the third century and the sixth century. Other scholars hold that they are considerably older, and originate from the third century BC. The Sanskrit versions ...