Composed in India around 300 CE,  the Panchatantra contains some of the oldest fables in the world. Some of its stories can be traced as far back as 1500 BCE, to the ancient Sanskrit text, the Rig Veda; many of its stories are even older. The oldest recension that we have is probably the Sanskrit Tantrakhyayika, which predates the Panchatantra version available to us today; the most famous ‘retelling’ of the original work is the Sanskrit Hitopadesha by Narayana, composed sometime between 800 and 950 CE.

The original Panchatantra is in a mixture of prose and verse, in a style that is simple and direct. The introduction attributes the work to Vishnusharma, a learned Brahmin, who used these tales to teach the art of kingship and worldly wisdom to the three dull-witted sons of a king. The work is divided into five parts (hence the name: pancha: five and tantra: parts), each part dealing with a particular aspect of life and living. The  delightful tales of the Panchatantra made it a very popular text. Its stories, carried far and wide by merchants and travellers, spread rapidly across the world, and the text was translated again and again into various languages through the centuries.

It was first translated into Pahlavi, in 550 CE,  at the command of the Sassanian ruler, Khusru Anushirwan (531-79 CE), of Persia. He sent his physician Barzoi to India to procure books on government and kingship, including the Panchatantra, which Barzoi translated from its original Sanskrit into Pahlavi. He  included in his translation an appendix containing fables from other Indian sources, including the Mahabharata.

Barzoi’s translation is now lost, but it was the source text for the first Syriac translation of the Panchatantra in 570 by the Periodeut Bud. Known as Kalilag and Damnag (after two of the principal characters, the jackals Karataka and Damanaka), this survives in manuscript form. 

In 750 CE, Barzoi’s Pahlavi version was translated into Arabic by Ibn-al-Maquffa. Ibn-al-Muqaffa’s translation, Kalilah wa Dimnah, was stylistic and literary, and written mainly for the instruction of civil servants.  Its subject matter made it extremely popular amongst all sections of society, and it was copied over and over again, with many mistakes and alterations. The manuscripts that survive today of this translation are all later ones, and bear little resemblance to Ibn-al-Maquffa’s original text. But the stories became part of the folklore of the Islamic world, and the work was carried by the Arabs to Spain. There, it was translated into Old Castilian in 1252 as Calila e Dimna.

From Ibn-al-Maquffa’s translation there also arose further translations – including a later Syriac version (c. 1000), another Persian version (c.1130),  and translations into eastern Turki, old Ottoman Turkish, Ethiopic, and Malay. In 1080 it was translated into Greek, as the Stephanites kai Ichenlates.  In 1250, it was translated into Hebrew by the Rabbi Joel; from this it was translated into Latin by John of Capua as Directorium Humanae Vitae (Directory of Human Life). The Latin version was printed in 1480, and became the source of most European versions of the work. A German translation was printed in 1483 – one of the first works to be printed by Johannes Gutenberg, after the Bible.

In 1552, the Latin version was also translated into Italian, by Anton Francesco Doni; this became the source for the first English translation, in 1570, by Sir Thomas North, as The Fables of Bidpai.

Many of the Panchatantra stories are also found in much later collections such as the 11th century compendium of stories, the Kathasaritsagara,  by Somadeva, in the slightly later (c. 11th-12th century CE) Arabian Nights, in the 17th century fables of La Fontaine aas well as in the relatively recent, 19th century collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. The stories also travelled to Indonesia in both oral and written form. 

The popularity of the Panchatantra is still undiminished today, and it continues to be translated into English and other languages.

Now read on to discover the ancient and charming tales of this great work.