A History of Sanskrit Literature: Classical Period, Vol. I c4.s7.3

c4.s7.3

The currency of tales and fables of all kinds may be presumed from remote antiquity, but they were perhaps not used for a definite purpose, nor reduced to a literary form, until at a comparatively late period. The ancestor of the popular tale may have been such Vedic Ākhyānas as are preserved, for instance, in the Ṛgvedic dialogue-hymn of Purūravas and Urvaśī, or in such Brāhmaṇic legends as that of Śunaḥśepa ; but it is futile to seek the origin of the beast-fable in the Ṛgvedic hymn of frogs (*vii.* 103), which panegyrises the frogs more from a magical than didactic motive, or in the Upaniṣadic parable of dogs (*Ch. Up.* i. 12), which represents the dogs as searching out a leader to howl food for them, but which may have been either a satire or an allegory. Nor is there any clear recognition of the fable in the Epics as a distinct literary *genre*, although the motifs of the clever jackal, the naughty cat and the greedy vulture are employed for the purpose of moral instruction. But all these, as well as the Jātaka device of illustrating the virtues of Buddhism by means of beast-stories,¹ may have suggested the material out of which the full-fledged beast-fable developed in the *Pañcatantra*. In its perfected form, it differed from the simple parable or the mere tale about beasts, in having the latent didactic motive clearly and deliberately brought out and artistically conveyed in a definite framework and a connected grouping of clever stories, in which the thoughts and deeds of men are ascribed to animals. There is nothing simple or popular in such a form ; and the beast-fable as an independent literary creation diverged considerably in this respect from the popular tale, which is free from didactic presentation and in which the more or less simple ideas of the people and their belief in myth and magic, as well as racy stories of human life, find a direct expression. In the case of beast-fable, again, the connexion with the courts of princes is cleared. The popular tale, no doubt, speaks of romantic prince and princess of a fairly-land ; but the framework of collection of beast-fables like the *Pañcatantra*, which is delivered in the form of instruction to tender-minded young princes in statecraft and practical morality, leaves no doubt about one form of its emyloyment. It is thus closely related to the Nīti-śāstra and Arthaśāstra,¹ but it is not directly opposed to the Dharma-śāstra. The fact is important; for even if the beast-fable inculcates political wisdom or expediency in the practical affairs of life, rather than a strict code of uprightness, it seldom teaches cleverness at the expense of morality.²