V.S.Gopalakrishnan
I was familiar with “Panchatantra” from my young days but had been stranger to “Hitopadesa” for half my life. Simply put, if “Panchatantra” were to be ‘special ghee masala dosa’, then “Hitopadesa” would be comparable to some ‘special ghee saadaa dosa’.
We should come out of the wrong notion that Panchatantra was meant for children. It was meant for educating three princes, who were sons of a king, in the art of kingly rule and political science. It so happens that some of the delightful fables in the treatise are simple and can be appreciated by children. Each fable carries a moral. We should reckon that children are more interested in stories than in highfaluting morals which can be imbibed only on attaining a certain maturity and with empirical experiences.
Panchatantra literally means five texts and indeed the collection/compilation/compendium/treatise consists of five major stories or chapters (with lots of interwoven fables and sub-stories). Indians are the most ancient and most reputed story-tellers of the world, beating all other ancient civilizations such as the Greek, Persian and others. And Panchatantra fables are the oldest fables known to be extant.
Some scholars believe that this treatise in Sanskrit was composed in the 3rd century BCE, based on older oral traditions that were prevalent. The author was an 80 year old sagacious Brahmin called Pandit Vishnu Sharma. The story goes that at that time a king was not happy with the level of learning of his three sons and was worried on that account. On the recommendation of his advisors, the king sent for the sagacious Pandit Vishnu Sharma who agreed to educate the three princes suitably within six months free of charge although he was offered a hundred pieces of land. The three princes moved out of the palace and stayed with Pandit Vishnu Sharma who successfully gave them the needed education in political science and state-craft within the allotted six months, through the means of fables involving birds and animals as the main actors, each fable having an important moral. Some writers needlessly refer to the princes as all duffers. All children cannot be duffers and education in state-craft in any case is a fine thing for the princes. Usually the eldest fellow will become the king and the younger brothers would be sent out as governors.
The Sanskrit Panchatantra was both in prose and poetry. Prose was mainly used for the narrative. Poetry was used to depict maxims,morals,sayings,proverbs and the like. The treatise was translated first into Middle Persian (called Pahlavi) in 570 CE by Borzuya who was the Persian King’s physician. Thenceforth, it went into Arabic translation in 750 CE. Thereafter, it got translated over centuries into various European languages. The first English translation was in 1570 CE, by one Sir Thomas North, who gave the book the unfortunate title “The Fables of Bidpai”. Who is this Bidpai fellow? Bidpai is an anglicized form of the word “vidyapati” (meaning teacher) which stood for the author Pandit Vishnu Sharma. “Bidpai” later became “Pilpai” or “Pilpay” into English and other European languages! The calamity caused is that the westerners will show a blank face even as of today if you say “Panchatantra” but if you say “Tales of Pilpay” they will know what it is! Here are a couple of “Bidpai/Pilpay books” you can buy today in a western bookshop!
1) The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai (Yesterday's Classics)by Maude Barrows Dutton, Boyd E. Smith, E. Boyd Smith 2) Pilpay's Fables by Richard Francis Burton, Susheila Goodwin
It is so sad that Pilpay has replaced the original title “Panchatantra” in the west. But when it comes to terms like Vedas and Upanishads this kind of distortion has not happened and any educated westerner would know them.
HITOPADESA
I have already mentioned that Hitopadesa is the “saadaa dosa” version of Panchatantra masaalaa dosa, carrying some variations. This book/treatise in Sanskrit (with prose and poetry combined) is a derivative in a simpler format from the ancient Panchatantra and was written in the 12th century CE by one Narayana who was patronized by a king called Dhavalachandra. Hitopadesa simply means beneficial advice in Sanskrit.
Strangely, Hitopadesa has become more popular in the west than the Fables of Pilpay (panchatantra)! Most of the fables are common to both books. Indians seem less aware of Hitopadesa than of Panchatantra. The famous Indologist Charles Wilkins who first translated Bhagawatgita, first translated Hitopadesa into English.
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If one is not wanting a scholarly approach, one would be better off to read up publications/books of the simple panchatantra tales meant for children rather than read a translation of the original work. There is great amusement in it without having to bother the intellect. Googling for the tales is a good idea too. I however have a book titled “The Panchatantra – Wisdom for Today from Timeless Classic” by Sunita Parasuraman (Jaico/2011/Rs.295/pp.271). It claims to be a more friendly translation of the original than the archaic English translation by Arthur Ryder in 1925. Unfortunately, Sunita has not converted everything into easily readable prose. The maxims and morals are kept by her still in English poetic form which is too knotty to follow and could have been rendered into simple English prose. If you see any poetry in any translation work, just avoid it!
The book “Hitopadesa of Narayana” by M.R.Kale (Motilal banarsidas/1896/reprint 2010/pp.289/Rs.175) that I have is a very good book containing three sections. The first section reproduces the original work in Sanskrit. The second section is a whole translation in English prose, avoiding the knottiness of poetry. The third section contains explanatory notes in English with regard to the Sanskrit text.
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In my next blog I shall dwell upon the more detailed and intricate aspects of the stories and fables in the Panchatantra and Hitopadesa which the readers could find interesting.
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Before closing this blog, let me give you an insight, and tell you that all the worst things have been said about women (and not men) in the form of maxims in Hitopadesa. There is no let up on the attacks on women with respect to their conduct and morals! I shall compile and present to you some of those hideous maxims! It looks like women had a lot of liberties and hence the husbands had to be watchful of them in those old times. Here is a wonderful story, which I have highly condensed, from Hitopadesa about a loose married woman.
The beautiful young lady was the wife of a merchant. The merchant goes out of town. The wife was seeing a magistrate and also his dashing son. In the husband’s absence, the magistrate’s son gets into the lady’s bed. Suddenly, the magistrate himself turns up there, and the lady quickly sends the son to hide in the barn! The magistrate now gets into the lady’s bed. And suddenly the merchant-husband comes home cutting short his trip. What does the wife do now? She takes a huge stick and pretends to hit the magistrate in her husband’s view.
She explains to her husband that the magistrate was mad and wanted to kill his son who incidentally came into her gate and whom she had to hide in the barn. The merchant was happy with the wife’s act to save the son’s life! The moral of this story is given out as “one must do quick thinking and act according to circumstances”! Surely this story is never meant for children!
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