A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s1.6

c18.s1.6

We may confidently assume from the epic and from allusions to proverbs in Patañjali² that the beast fable was thus current, but we cannot say with any certainty whether fables had yet come to be reduced to literary form of any kind. The answer may be in the negative, for the fable as we have it in the *Pañcatantra* is indeed an elaborate production despite its seeming lack of art. It is essentially didactic, and thus must consist in part of a tale, but in part also of a moral or maxim of practical life—which may, of course, not be moral in the higher sense of the term. The fable, indeed, is essentially connected with the two branches of science known by Indians as the *Nītiçāstra* and the *Arthaçāstra*, which have this in common as opposed to the *Dharmaçāstra* that they are not codes of morals, but deal with man's action in practical politics and conduct of the ordinary affairs of every-day life and intercourse. We must not, however, exaggerate the contrast between these Çāstras, for in the *Arthaçāstra* and the *Nītiçāstra* alike there is much common sense, and that is often in accord with practical morality; at no time can we regard the didactic fable as intended merely to extol cleverness without regard to morality; there lingers around the work a distinct influence of the *Dharmaçāstra*, as was only to be expected, seeing that the *Pañcatantra* was intended for the instruction of the young and the instructors were Brahmins. But the youthful pupils were evidently not intended to be Brahmin boys either solely or mainly; tradition enshrined in the *Pañcatantra* itself asserts its composition for the instruction of the sons of a prince, and with this accords the use of Sanskrit, for at the probable time of its first production, Sanskrit was already essentially the language of the Brahmins and of the high official classes in the royal *entourage*. A work of this sort, it is evident, was a very definite creation, something vastly different from mere tales regarding beasts or even the simple fable as it may have passed current orally.