The World's Classics

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                Pancatantra The Book of India's Folk Wisdom

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                  Translated from the original Sanskrit by

                              PATRICK OLIVELLE

                              Oxford New York

                          OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

                                    1997

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From the:

                                INTRODUCTION



         No other work of Hindu literature has played so important
        a part in the literature of the world as the Sanskrit story-
        collection called the Pancatantra. Indeed, the statement has
          been made that no book except the Bible has enjoyed such
         an extensive circulation in the world as a whole. This may
       be---I think it probably is---an exaggeration. Yet perhaps it
       is easier to underestimate than to overestimate the spread of
                              the Pancatantra.

                                               (Franklin Edgerton 1924b, 3)



IF translation is, the best compliment paid to a literary work, then, as
one of the earliest and certainly the most frequently translated literary
product of India, the Pancatantra has received the ultimate compliment both
from within the Indian subcontinent and from the world at large. In India
the Pancatantra has been repeatedly edited and reworked to suit different
purposes, and it has been translated into nearly every major Indian
language. 'No other collection of stories', Edgerton observes,' has become
so popular throughout the length and breadth of India. It has been worked
over again and again, expanded, abstracted, turned into verse, retold in
prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated
into Sanskrit." Even more significantly, individual stories associated with
the Pancatantra have become part of common Indian folklore transmitted
orally from parents to children down the centuries.

The migration of the Pancatantra through the rest of the world is even more
fascinating. There are over 200 versions in more than 50 languages. Indeed,
the Pancatantra spread at an earlier time and more extensively in the world
than any other piece of Indian literature, including such well-known texts
as the Bhagavad Gita. Anyone who reads the Pancatantra can surely
understand the reasons for its popularity.

Besides the delightful stories wonderfully told and the pithy proverbs
containing ageless and practical wisdom, one of the secrets to its appeal
and success is that the Pancatantra is a complex book that does not seek to
reduce the complexities of human life, government policy, political
strategies, and ethical dilemmas into simple solutions; it can and does
speak to different readers at different levels. Indeed, the current
scholarly debate regarding the intent and purpose of the
Pancatantra&emdash;whether it supports unscrupulous Machiavellian politics
or demands ethical conduct from those holding high office---underscores the
rich ambiguity of the text.

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