A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s5.11

c18.s5.11

The Southern *Pañcatantra*¹ exists in at least five recensions, representing the text which won currency in southern India. It is essentially in most of these versions an abbreviated account, in which, while nothing essential has been omitted, a good deal of shortening has been done; Edgerton estimates the amount preserved as three-quarters of the prose and two-thirds of the verses. It is later than Bhāravi. One tale (i. 12) of the cowherdess and her lovers is clearly unoriginal. There is no doubt that it goes back to a common original with the Nepalese version and the *Hitopadeça*, and, as these versions save the last quote a stanza of Kālidāsa, the original cannot have been older than A.D. 500. There exists a much expanded version of this text, based in part on Tamil sources with ninety-six tales in all; from this was derived in substance the Abbé Dubois' *Le Pantcha-Tantra ou les cinq ruses* (1826).