A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s3.3

Language: English

c18.s3.3.1

The frame story of Book i is preceded by a legend of the wickedness of the sons of king Amaraçakti, who entrusts them to Viṣṇuçarman on his promise in six months to teach them polity. Then we are introduced to the topic of the separation of friends, the frame story relating how a wicked jackal brought about the estrangement of the lion, Piṅgalaka, from the bull, Saṁjīvaka, who had been rescued by the lion and then was treated as his dear friend, to the disgust of the jackals, Karaṭaka and Damanaka, the lion's trusted ministers. By cunning the lion is made to distrust the bull, and finally to slay him; he repents when he sees his blood-stained paws, but Damanaka consoles him and remains his premier. The book gives ample room for political discussions, but it contains also a set of interesting fables. The fate of the ape who pulled out a wedge and was split up by it is recounted to prove the folly of interfering with what does not concern one. The necessity of investigating in lieu of mere looking at surface appearances is shown by the tale (2) of the jackal who learned by investigation that the drum whose sound had terrified was merely skin with emptiness within.

c18.s3.3.2

Then we learn of three cases of evils brought on oneself in the tales (3 a–c) of the foolish monk who took a thief as pupil and had his cash stolen, of the jackal who ran in between and was killed by the impact of two butting rams, and of the procuress who took the place of a weaver's wife in order to further her intrigue with a patron, and suffered in consequence the loss of her nose. Tale 4 shows the advantage of guile over force; the female crow to punish the serpent who slew her offspring put the prince's gold chain in his hole and thus had him killed. Next we hear of the error of over-greed, illustrated by the heron who deceived the fish into trusting him to remove them to another lake, and so being eaten by him, but who met his just fate from a wise crab. Tale 6 proves that folly leads to ruin, as the lion was destroyed by the clever hare who caused him to leap into a well to attack his counterfeit presentment in the water. The result of cleverness inducing combined action is next illustrated by the tale of how the retainers of a lion by offering themselves to their sick master as food and being refused in turn induced the foolish camel, who was living under the lion's protection, to do likewise, whereupon the lion devoured him. Next comes a warning against attacking an enemy without knowing his prowess, illustrated by Tale 9 of the strand birds.

c18.s3.3.3

The male bade the hen lay her eggs at the ocean's edge, but she derided the project, defending her thesis by two tales (10 and 11) emboxed in Tale 9. The first explains how the foolish tortoise lost his life by not heeding the advice of the geese, who were carrying him on a stick held in their claws, not to open his mouth while in the air; the second explains how the fish Forethought and Ready-wit escaped the fishers but Come-what-will was caught. The husband, however, insists on her acting as he bids; the sea takes away the eggs, but the bird successfully invokes, through Garuḍa, Viṣṇu's aid, and the ocean on pain of an assault by fire gives back the eggs. The tale (12) of the bird which would not take a telling, but insisted on explaining to a foolish monkey that he could not warm himself by the light of a glowworm and so irritated the monkey that he killed him, proves the truth that some people will not learn. Tale 13 tells how Honest-wit and Evil-wit disputed over a sum of money which they had together buried but which the latter had secretly dug up. In court he declares that the tree will prove as witness of the scene that his adversary was a thief, and, when it is arranged to go to the tree, he tells his father to go into its hollow and pretend to be the tree spirit. The father remonstrates, telling Tale 14, how the foolish heron induced a mungoose to eat a snake which devoured her young only to find that mungooses are connoisseurs in young birds.

c18.s3.3.4

None the less he does his son's bidding, declares from the tree that Honest-wit is a thief, only to be burned in the tree by that outraged youth, his crime being thus exposed. The last tale is that of the merchant's son whose balance of 1,000 pounds of iron was stolen by the friend with whom he deposited it in his absence. When he asks it back he is told that mice had eaten it; he therefore steals the son of his friend, and declares that a falcon has carried him away; brought before the judge, he easily persuades him to secure the return of the balance for the son.