PANCHA-TANTRA, literally five books ; a famous collection of tales by Vishnu-Sarman, a Brahman, about the end of the 5th century of the Christian era, for the edification of King Dabislilim's sons. They were translated into Pehlavi, in the 6th century, in the time of Nnshirwan ; from that into Arabic by Abdallah bin Mokaffah about the middle of the 8th century ; then into Persian by Rudaki, about the close of the 9th century, who received 80,000 dirhams for his labour. About the middle of the 12th century (A.D. 1150), in the time of Bahrain Shah, a Persian prose translation was made ; and a subsequent version was made by Kashifi, and named the Anwar-i-Suhaili. It is the basis of the lyar-i Danish in modern Persian, and the latter has appeared in Urdu as the Khird-Afroz. A Greek version was made by Simeon Seth at the com mand of Alexis Commence, and they appeared in Hebrew and Aramaic, Italian, Spanish, and German. The first English edition was in the 16th century, then in French in 1644 and 1709. A Latin version was made by order of John of Capua, from the Hebrew, in the 13th century, and from it translations were made into all the languages of modern Europe, until it becaine universally known as Pilpay's Fables. It. has been
translated into the Tamil, Canarese, and all the spoken languages of India. is evidently from Bidpai, but in the original Sanskrit no name similar to this occurs. The Arabic translation is called Krdila-wa-Damn a, the of two jackals which take a conspicuous part la the first story, their names in the original Arabic being Karataka and Dainanaka. The later Persian translation is called Anwar-i-Sithaili, or Lights of Canopus, and the Turkish rendering of it is the Humayun Namali. With the exception of the Bible and the Pilgrim's Progress, there is probably no work that has been translated into so many languages as the Pancha-Tantra. There is great diversity in the manuscript copies of the Pancha Tantra. In some versions the residence of the king is in Mahilaropya, a city of the south of India, which Professor Wilson identifies with St. Thorn& The Canareso and Sanskrit versions make it to be Pataliputra on the Ganges. Ward says it is the only original work on ethics in the Sanskrit lauguage.—Garrett ; Ward.