Tales from The Panchatantra by Macherla Diwakar

Panchatantra literally means Five treatises, or the five books, divisions, of the compilation, dating back to 200 BCE or earlier. It could have been the work of one author or many, we have no idea, for “the original Sanskrit version has been lost,” according to the compilers of the “International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature.” All we know from the text itself is that long ago, King Amarasakti, who ruled over a kingdom in south India, was worried because his three sons were what modern psychology would categorise as “Slow Learners.”

Various gurus had tried and failed to instill wisdom in the princes until Vishnusharma, an octogenarian scholar, takes up the challenge, saying “I will make your sons intelligent in six months time.” The result of this challenge was The Panchatantra, which, according to Franklin Edgerton (1885-1963), one of the translators of the text, is “certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India.”

This version based on the translation by Arthur William Ryder (1877-1938) seeks to present The Panchatantra as a niti-shastra, which Ryder translated as “the wise conduct of life,” intended for both the young and old, rather than as a mere compilation of animal stories to amuse children.