Panchatantra

Panchatantra (Sanskrit: Five Books),
famous Indian collection of fables and other morally instructive tales. The Panchatantra belongs to the literary genre of mirror for princes, intending to teach wisdom to future rulers. Its five books treat the following topics:

    (1) disunion of friends,

    (2) gaining of friends,

    (3) war and peace,

    (4) loss of possession,

    (5) consequence of rash action.

The author of the Panchatantra is unknown. The book's original text, now lost, was probably compiled between the 1st and 6th centuries; the oldest extant version, which is regarded as quite close to the original, is the Tantrakhayika (Tales containing a system of wisdom), attributed to a certain Vishnusharman. The Panchatantra was circulated in the West by a series of adaptations and translations in various languages: the Persian physician Burzoy (6th century) prepared a...

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