BIDPAI, or PII.PAI, is the reputed author of a collection of fables and stories which have been widely current both in Asia and Europe for nearly'2000 years, passing as a compendium of practical wisdom. Scarcely any book except the Bible has been trans lated into so many languages; and its history deserves.attention as part of the history of human development. The researches of Colebrooke, Wilson, Sylvestre do Sacy, and Loiseleur des Longchamps (Essai su• les Fables indiennes, 1838) have successfully traced the origin of the collection, its spread. and the alterations It has undergone among dif ferent nations. The ultimate source is the old Indian collection in Sanscrit, with the title Panchatan.tra (q.v.), i.e., "Five Sections" (edited by Koseg,arten, Bonn, 1848). An analytical account of the Sanscrit Panehatantra, by H. H. Wilson—who determines the date of its production to be subsequent to the 5th c. A.D.—is printed in the Transaclions of the royal Asiatic society, vol. 1.; but an abridgment of it, called the /./itapadeste (q.v.), is better known than tint original. A critical edition of the Ilitopodesa has been pull fished by A.W. von Schlegel and Lassen (Bonn, 1829), and translations have been made into English by Wilkins and Jones. and into German by 31. Milner (Leip. 1844).
Under the Persian king, Nushirvan (531-79), the Panchatantra was translated into the Pelilvi tongue by his physician Barsnyeh, under the title of Calilah and Dimnoh (from two jackals that take a prominent part in the first fable). This Pelilvi version has perished with all the profane literature of ancient Persia; but under the caliph Altnansur (754-75), it wa.stranslated into Arabic by Abdallall-ibn-AlmokalTa (published by De Sacy, Par. 1816). From Altnokafra's Arabic translation—in the introduction to which tile
;labor of the collection is called I3idpai, the chief of Indian philosophers—have flowed 01 the other translations and paraphrases of the east and west. Several Amine poets worked it up into complete poems; and in the new Persian literature a great variety of versions and paraphrases, some in verse, some in prose, were made. From the Persian of Vaez (about the end of the 15th c.), the work was translated into Turkish about 1540 by Ali Clielebi, under the title of Homagun-nameh, the imperial book. There are also translations into the ,Malay, Mongol, and Afghan languages.
Towards the end of the 11th c., a translation had appeared, from the Arable of ,llinoltaffa, into Greek, by Simeon Sethus; and later, a Hebrew translation by Rabbi Joel, which John of Capita, 11 converted Jew, in the last half of the 13th c., retranslated iiito Latin with the title of Director-tam Honiance Vita (published first at Angs. 1480, and 'repeatedly since). A version from this was made into German by 1'.. duke of Wurtentherg (died 1325), which appeared• with the title of Ecomple.S of the A ncit ,s'ves (Ulm, 1483). Under Alfonso X. of Castile (1252-84), Almokaffies work was translated into Castilian, and afterwards from that into Latin by Raymond of Veziei's, a learned physician. The other European translations follow, some the Latin of of Capon, some that of Raymond of Vezicrs; Spanish (Burgos, 1498), Italian (nor. 1548), English (Loud. 1570), Dutch (Amst. 1623), Danish (Cop. 1618), Swedish (Stock. 1743), German (most recent, Leip. 1802).