PANCATANTRA, or PANCHATANTRA, ( Skt., five threads, or books). The most important collection of Sanskrit beast fables. HA date is uncertain, but is probably as old as the fifth century A.D., since it was translated into Pahlavi in the sixth century by Barzoi. the Court physician of the Sassanian King Khosru Anushirvan (531-579). The Pan catantra is almost certainly drawn from Bud dhistic sources. Its analogies with the Jatakas (q.v.). or birth stories of the Buddha, are too close to admit of any other explanation than di rect borrowing. Thus the mingling of max ims in verse with the prose story and the simi larity of the bealt-fables of the Sanskrit work to many of the jatalai tales are rexenchtanees both striking and significant. On the other hand, the original Buddhism of the Pancatantra has been modified and given a veneer of Brah manism by the later redactors of the collec tion, who exercised whatever was anti-Brah manistie in spirit. The outline of the collec tion is a simple one. Auraratiqkti, King of Ma hilaropya, a city of the south (perhaps the Alaliarpha of Ptolemy, and the modern Mayila pur near Madras), had three idle and stupid sons. On the advice of his minister Sumati, he requested an aged Brahman, Vishnu4arman, to teach these youths and make them princes indeed. The sage promised to achieve this result within six months, and, to-inculcate in them moral prin ciples, be wrote the Paneatantra. After the young Inen had read this work, they became, within the six months' space, all that Amara4akti could de sire. The Pancatantra itself is divided, as its name implies, into five hooks. The first of these, the Mitrabhcda. or Separation of Friends, tells how two jackals. Karataka and Damanaka (whence is derived the title of the Syriac ver sion, Kalila and Dimna), bring together a lion, Pingalaka, and a bull, Sanjivaka. Damanaka, however, soon feels himself neglected, and, by telling the lion and the bull alike that each is plotting against the other, he causes the death of both, and. as the lion's prime minister, be comes the gainer by his craft. The called the 1/itraffiplibi, or Acquisition of Friends, deals with the friendship of a crow, Laghtupataraka, a mouse, Hiranyaka, a tortoise, Mantharaka, and a deer, Citranga, and sets forth the value and advantage of true friendship. The third book, the or (Book of) Crows and Owls, is designed to show the im possibility of real friendship between those who are natural enemies. as were INIeghavarna, king of the crows, and Arimardana, king of the owls.
In the fourth book, entitled LabilhapranQga, or Loss of what has been (Mined, the main story is of a crocodile, Vikaralamukha, and a monkey, Raktamukha. The latter gave the former nuts of the rose-apple tree, which so delighted the crocodile's wife. when she tasted some, that she compelled her husband to seek the heart of the monkey, which must be, she thought. better even than the nuts. Raktamukha, however, escaped, and the crocodiles for their greed and ingratitude lost all chance of future dainties. The last book is named Aparikhitakrraka, or Thouyhtk-ss Ac tion. A certain pious merchant named Mani bhadra, who had lost all, had a vision in which he was bidden to strike a Jaina monk who should appear to him the following day. Be did as he was bidden, and the apparition turned into gold. A barber seeing this, and knowing nothing of the vision, invited a number of ,Jaina monks to his house, and struck them so severely that were killed, and the barber himself was impaled as a punishment for his folly. About these frameworks fables appropriate to the title of each book are built. After the introduction, the order is a box arrangement, familiar to readers of the Arabian Nights. The situations are often excellent, and the moral teaching be yond reproach. The quaint treatment of the beasts as men. yet retaining all their peculiar traits. has a touch of delicate humor. Thus the crocodile falls at his wife's feet, and the tiger stands with folded hands after performing his religious ablutions. The influence of the Pan eatantra on literature has been considerable, as from it, in large part, the Hitopadesa (q.v.) was taken, and its form very probably exercised an influence, at least remotely. on the Arabian Xi/MN (q.v.). The text of the work, which seems from the evidence of the oldest translation to have comprised twelve books instead of five as at present, varies considerably in the different recensions. Consult: Pantehatnntrnm, ed. Kose garten (Bonn, 1848-59) ; Panehatantra, ed. Kiel horn and Biihler (Bombay, 1885-96) ; Benfey, Pwa.cehatan-tra, iibersetzt nut Einleitung Annterkungen (Leipzig, l859) ; Laneereau, Tnntdhatantra, traduit (Paris, 1871) ; Fritze, Pantschatantra, nen .iibersatzt (Leipzig, 1884) ; Shadag,opa Chari, Panchata-a Ira, translated (Tri ehinopoli, 1887) Mankowski, Der Auszug aus dean Paneatantra in Ttshcmcndra.s Irihu(knlha (Leipzig, 1892) ; Schmidt, Paiieatantra (le.rtos ornatior), zum erstcn Male iibersetzt (ib.,1901). See BIDPAI ; FAnLE.