Mar 27, 2007 12:53 AM
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In the south of India, there was a king called Amarasakti. His concern was his 3 dullard sons who showed no interest in anything. So he called his council of ministers and asked them for advice. One of the ministers suggested the name of Pandit Vishnu Sharma, a renowned Sanskrit scholar. The king summoned Vishnu Sharma and asked him to train his sons, who promptly took this up as a challenge. The scholar took the 3 sons to his ashram, and trained them in the matters by teaching them on 5 strategies. And in six months, the dullard sons were transformed into men of impeccable learning.
Those 5 strategies were what all of us in India know as Panchatantra. To most of us, Panchatantra is a collection of simple tales, with a moral in each one of them. Aha but there in lies the beauty of the whole work. While the tales are simple, the overall structure of the work is one of the most complex and brilliant piece of literature in a very long time. The scholar thought these princes, the strategies of life, but using simple language. Each strategy is narrated as a tale in a tale. And sometimes the tale in a tale, has another tale to it. Each of the chapters itself is a story, and this in turn contains tales, told by the narrators.
The first strategy is Mitrabheda or Loss of Friends. The story starts off with an abandoned bull Sanjeevaka, becoming the friend of a lion called Pingalaka. The tales in this part are narrated by 2 jackals Karkataka and Damanaka, who are the advisers for the lion. While Karkataka is more of a person who doesn’t want to get into intrigues, Damanaka is more cunning. The jackals are jealous of the lion’s friendship with the bull, and how they cause differences between them, and how ultimately, the lion kills the bull, is what makes up this chapter.
The second strategy is Mitralabha or Gain of Friends. This part is about 4 friends, a crow called Laghupatanka, a rat called Hiranyaka, a turtle called Mandharaka and a deer called Chitranga. How these friends come together, and how they unite to save the life of Chitrangafrom a hunter, depicts the value of bonding and friendship. The discourses on value of friendship are told again in a series of tales.
Suhruddabheda or Dissension between Friends is what makes up the third strategy. Here the tale is centered around traditional enemies Crows and Owls. The king of the crows Meghavarna, faces a threat from the colony of owls, who kill an crow, straying outside the tree.The king of the crows calls his ministers on how to tackle this threat. One minister calls for tactical retreat as a strategy, another minister calls for trickery citing the Mahabharatexample of **Bhima-Kichaka, the third minister suggests they spend time in exile and regroup for attack, while the next minister suggests that the king should gather allies and attack the owls. The wisest of the lot Sthirajeevi, suggest that the best way is to cause dissension among the owls, or put it simply Divide and Rule.
So he pretends to have a fight with the crows, and gains the confidence of the king of owls Arimardana. The owl king has a conference with his ministers about what to do with Sthirajeevi. His most trusted adviser Raktaksha, advises him to kill the crow immediately, saying an enemy can never be trusted. But his other minister Kruraksha advises him to give shelter to a refugee, while another adviserDeeptaksha, feels Sthirajeevi would be of help in knowing the enemy. Another adviser Vakranasa, feels that when two rivals fight, it is they who would benefit and another minister Prakakarna, feels that cooperation is the best. Arimardana disregards the advice of Rakthaksha and has to pay a heavy price for this later.
Loss of Gains** is what makes up the fourth strategy. Here the dialogue is between a monkey Raktamukha and a crocodile Karlamukha. The crocodile tries to kill the monkey, and how the monkey outwits the foolish crocodile, and makes him see wisdom, is what the strategy is about. This part shows that at times, even when we have everything to gain, we end up losing all, thanks to our foolishness.
Imprudence** is what the final strategy is about. This advises that an action done in haste without proper thought would always result in grief. Though the actions of two Brahmins Chakradhara and Suvarnasiddhi, this shows that wisdom by itself has no meaning unless it is applied properly.
The 5 strategies are what made up Rajniti. These tales though simple, contain a lot of meaning, especially in areas like statecraft, politics and diplomacy. And the entire work is totally open ended. Each tale has a moral, but there is also another tale with a conflicting moral. Nothing is deemed as wrong or right, but taken in context of the situation. If ever there was a work on human nature and complexity of life, this is it. This is one of the best books, you can read to your children, Amar Chitra Katha has a wonderful series of comics dedicated to this, which are written in simple language. If you do want to go deeper into the complexities of this wonderful work, there are many books in the market, which have a more voluminous version. As a simple morality tale for kids or as a complex structure dealing with the intricacies of political life, the Panchatantra is a work that would be forever immortal.
I like this book very much- This has been typed by my daughter Lakshya. She was sitting all along with me while I was writing this review and she very much wanted to type something. She loves these tales which I tell her often. This review is dedicated to her.
