# Panchatantra

As per Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore Mythology and Legend, India is the "chief source of the world's fable literature". In India, the Panchatantra is the mother of all fables, compiled from orally available ancient fables by Vishnu Sharma, presumably in the third century B.C. Regarded as the most widely translated non-religious text in history, the Panchatantra was translated into Middle Persian/Pahlavi in the sixth century and into Arabic in the eighth century. As early as the eleventh century this work reached Europe, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech, and perhaps other Slavonic languages. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland. A German translation, Das Buch der Beispiele, of the Panchatantra was printed in 1483, making this one of the earliest books to be printed by Gutenberg's press after the Bible. These early European versions were generally known as the fables of Bidpai or Pilpay. In France, the Second Fables of fabulist Jean de La Fontaine was based mostly on Pilpay. In India, at least 25 recensions have been traced, the oldest being the Tantrakhyayika recension of Kashmir, and the longest being the 1199 CE recension of the Jain monk, Purnabhadra. Other popular recensions are the Hitopadesha, and Book 10 of the famous Kathasaritsagara.
In the Indian tradition, The Panchatantra is a nītiśāstra. Nīti can be roughly translated as "the wise conduct of life" and a śāstra is a technical or scientific treatise; thus it is considered a treatise on political science and human conduct. Its literary sources are "the expert tradition of political science and the folk and literary traditions of storytelling". It draws from the Dharma and Artha śāstras, quoting them extensively. It is also explained that nīti "represents an admirable attempt to answer the insistent question how to win the utmost possible joy from life in the world of men" and that nīti is "the harmonious development of the powers of man, a life in which security, prosperity, resolute action, friendship, and good learning are so combined to produce joy". ~~ excerpts from Wikipedia.
English-language translations of पञ्चतन्त्रम् include:
* The Fables of Bidpai, the earliest English version of 1570, possibly derived from the Tantrakhyayika recension, come down to English through the multilanguage route.
* The Panchatantra (Purnabhadra's Recension of 1199 CE), translated by Arthur William Ryder (1925)
* Fables and Proverbs from the Sanskrit, being the Hitopadesa (1885), recension of Narayan Pandit, translated by Charles Wilkins
* Fables (La Fontaine, tr. Wright), Book 7 onwards make the Second Fables, based on Bidpai and other oriental sources.
* An argosy of fables/Hindoo fables, contains some stories from the Panchatantra.
Other notable English translations include:
* Knatchbull, Rev Wyndham (1819), Kalila and Dimna or The Fables of Bidpai, Oxford, <https://archive.org/details/kalilaanddimnao00almgoog>. Google BooksGoogle Books (translated from Silvestre de Stacy's laborious 1816 collation of different Arabic manuscripts)
* Eastwick, Edward B (transl.) (1854), The Anvari Suhaili; or the Lights of Canopus Being the Persian version of the Fables of Pilpay; or the Book Kalílah and Damnah rendered into Persian by Husain Vá'iz U'L-Káshifí, Hertford: Stephen Austin, Bookseller to the East-India College, <https://books.google.com/?id=W0oOAAAAQAAJ>. Also online at Persian Literature in Translation
* Wollaston, Arthur N. (transl.) (1877), The Anwar-I-Suhaili Or Lights of Canopus Commonly Known As Kalilah And Damnah Being An Adaptation By Mulla Husain Bin Ali Waiz-Al-Kashifi of The Fables of Bidapai, London: W H Allen.
* Falconer, Ion Keith (1885), Kalilah and Dimnah or The Fables of Bidpai, Cambridge University Press, <https://books.google.com/?id=CGvYAAAAMAAJ>. , reprinted by Philo Press, Amsterdam 1970
* Tales Within Tales – adapted from the fables of Pilpai, Sir Arthur N Wollaston, John Murray, London 1909
* Wilkinson (1930), The Lights of Canopus described by J V S Wilkinson, London: The Studio Limited.
* Rajan, Chandra (transl.) (1993), Viṣṇu Śarma: The Panchatantra, London: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-045520-5. (reprint: 1995) (also from the North Western Family text.)
* Olivelle, Patrick (transl.) (1997), The Pancatantra: The Book of India's Folk Wisdom, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-283988-6. (Translation based on Edgerton's Southern Family Sanskrit text.)
* Dharma, Krishna (transl.) (2004), Panchatantra – A vivid retelling of India's most famous collection of fables, Badger CA, USA: Torchlight Publishing, ISBN 978-1-887089-45-6. (Accessible popular compilation derived from a Sanskrit text with reference to the aforementioned translations by Chandra Rajan and Patrick Olivelle.)
* Olivelle, Patrick (2006), The Five Discourses on Worldly Wisdom, Clay Sanskrit Library, ISBN 978-0-8147-6208-0, <https://books.google.com/?id=LHS-rHrE6PEC&pg=PA17>.
* Wood, Ramsay (2008), Kalila and Dimna, Fables of Friendship and Betrayal, Introduction by Doris Lessing, Postscript by Dr Christine van Ruymbeke, London: Saqi Books, ISBN 978-0-86356-661-5.
* Wood, Ramsay (2008), Kalila and Dimna, Fables of Friendship and Betrayal (Vol. 1: Books 1 & 2) Introduction by Doris Lessing (US Kindle edition), Edinburg: Zirac Press, ISBN 0-86356-661-8.
* Wood, Ramsay (2010), Kalila and Dimna, The Panchatantra Retold – Book One, Introduction by Doris Lessing, Noida: Random House India.
* Wood, Ramsay (2011), Kalila and Dimna, Fables of Conflict and Intrigue (Vol. 2: Books 4 & 5), Introduction by Michael Wood (US Kindle edition), Edinburg: Zirac Press, ISBN 0-9567081-0-2.