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There is no better story book than Panchatantra.
Jul 03, 2005 03:55 PM 55878 Views
(Updated Jul 03, 2005 03:55 PM)

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The panchatantra is a well known book in all regional languages as well. When I was a child I thought it was written by some Telugu author. In fact a story was lifted by a famous Telugu writer Paravastu Chinnaya Suri and retold the same in a highly prosaic Telugu which was a lesson in our Telugu syllabus. Though as a child I read a short version (a few stories) of it and liked it I did not realize how much children like these stories until I told them to my daughters several years later.


I tried to tell the story of the great epic Mahabharata to my daughter and to my terrible surprise she was not interested in listening from second day or third day. I was a bit puzzled because why children could not be interested in Mahabharata! It may be that I took wrong part of it to narrate. (It a huge epic 50 times bigger than Bible in volume).


And to my amazement she listened with rapt attention when I started narrating a story from Panchatantra. May be the king who requested Vishnu Sharma also might have undergone the same predicament.


Panchatantra is the root of all stories of the world.


Like we have only seven colors, we have only five tantras( ideas) on which all the stories in world are now based and will be written in future.


Panchatantra stories were written before Christ even before Buddha or Mahavira was born.


The story goes like this.


Once upon a time a king could not educate his unruly sons who could not be educated because they never listened to any teacher. No teacher could arouse interest in them to study anything.


A teacher called Vishnu Sharma announced before the king that he would teach his children on one condition. That the king should give him 30 villages as a gift. King readily agreed.


Vishnu started his story when the three princes were jumping around all over the Hall.


He told a story woven by him which also includes Sanskrit language, grammer, idea, ''samvadana''( the dialogue) and philosophy. The book that is available in English and many regional and foreign languages is mostly abridged version, totally devoid of Sanskrit slokas or philosophical commentary. Sometimes it is reduced to a mere fable , just a bone like structure of the original.


When you narrate these stories you have a great scope for flexibility. You can give your commentary depending on your experiences of life and your view point and off course depending on the child who is listening to you.


When I narrated a panchatantra story to my daughter ( at that time 5 years) I narrated a story of a tiger from Panchatantra in a following manner a little more lengthy than what I write here.


A tiger gets old and could not walk. She could not hunt. So, the tiger found a way out. The tiger understood that human beings are crazy of gold. And that they take immense risks to earn, steal or borrow gold. Human beings desire for wealth makes them blind. The tiger somehow obtaines a golden bracelet from a dead body and it holds aloft calling the passerby to take it. The tiger itself steeps in knee deep muck and mire or a thick mud from which apparently not able to extricate itself. A passerby , a learned Brahmin stops to take the bracelet. Tiger gives its point of view. Brahmin thinks from his point of view. In the end greed takes over Brahmin and he takes the risk of taking golden bracelet from the tiger’s paw because he believes the tiger's words, that it was old and dying and in its next birth it wants to take birth as a human being that is why it wants to ''donate'' the golden bracelet to a learned man according to shastras( religious treaties). The Brahmin goes near the Tiger. But the tiger easily jumps on him when he was very near and kills him, eats him , cleans its teeth in satisfaction and waits for the next man.


When my daughter grew up and reached high school I gave her an English version of the book Panchatantra , abridged but not too much abridged version of Panchatantra. Again to my utter surprise this time she told me that the story of monkey and crocodile was interesting and not the tiger one. A few more years later she liked a story of the bull whose terrible noise in the forest nearby makes the lion shiver and run in to cave and enquires with the jackal as to who was that stranger !!


Panchatantra would be highly interesting to the adults as well. They should read the unabridged version , with slokas,verse, prose philosophy and full dialogue.


It is a master piece and also a representative of India's cultural heritage.


The story about panchatantra says that finally those princes were educated the teacher Vishnu Sharma refuses to take thirty villages promised to him by king or even a single gold coin. He simply walks away once his duty was finished.


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