Modern Panchatantra
These are three animal fables of modern Panchatantra. (The original
Panchatantra is essentially a nītiśāstra, where Nīti
means "the wise conduct of life" and śāstra refers to a moral treatise; thus it is considered a treatise on
political science and human conduct.) These three modern fables are an attempt
to answer the insistent question of how to secure a life in which wisdom,
prosperity, determination, action, friendship, and trust are effectively harnessed to bring a humane
society.
The concept of evolutionary biology implies
that humans share common ancestry with animals and birds and that some of the
mental and moral faculties of humanity have the same traits as the inherited
traits in animals. The Homo Sapiens race seems to be a permutation –combination
of various animals and birds that prompted Lord David Attenborough to say : ‘I
think that we've stopped evolving. Because if natural selection, as proposed by
Darwin, is the main mechanism of evolution … then, we've stopped natural
selection. We are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection, of
its own free will, as it were.’ There are many others who dispute Lord
Attenborough’s pessimism and expect human evolution to continue.
Whatever may be the future of the human race,
there is no denying the process of evolution through the last 4000 million
years. We can trace our ancestry from
fishes to amphibians to mammals to primates to orangutans to chimpanzees to
guerillas to the present Homo Sapiens and in many instances we do share some of
the features and traits of animals and birds. We have invented many phrasal descriptions
such as cat’s whiskers, horse sense, canine loyalty, leonine roar, asinine
behaviour, cattle class, hawk’s eye etc
that link us to animals and birds. The political scene in India with elections
in the next few months is reminiscent of the jungle raj of our ancestors that
had also seen systemic changes in its rule. It will be appropriate to look at
some of the Panchatantra stories in a modern version for the readers to discern
their own conclusions.
The Two Headed Beaver
Once upon a time in a jungle, there was a Beaver who was in charge
of tax collection for the maintenance of the jungle, security of its inmates
and funds for activities that serve the public. The Beaver was sharp, hardworking, and had the
ability to plug tax evasion by the cunning and crooked animals who were the
ruling class. But despite all his persistence, he could not stop corruption at
different levels in the jungledom and decided to quit and start a mission to
cleanse the jungleraj system. He went
first in search of a Guru and found one who was mobilizing the aam animals to
fight corruption. The Beaver joined the Guru and shouted that all netas in and
outside of the establishment were partners in corruption. But he soon grew restless
and moved out of the Guru’s movement to float his own political outfit on the
advice of Yoya, his trusted friend, philosopher and guide to beat all the netas
in their own game. The Jungle Spirit intervened and cautioned him not to rock
the entire system as it would unleash anarchy. The Beaver refused to relent until
he destroyed all the weeds in the forest on which the netas fed themselves and
this meant cutting at times even the roots of the trees. The Jungle Spirit
advised the beaver to exercise caution and not go overboard and seek advice only
of the wiser inhabitants of the jungle and in return she will bestow a boon of
his choice.
The Beaver went round the jungle collecting all the aam animals
who, he felt were victims of the ‘chor’ raj. All the aam animals and birds came
flocking to the Beaver with all their woes and the Beaver said that once he gets to the seat of power, all their miseries
will end. He asked them whether he should get to the seat of power and if so,
how to achieve it. The aam animals roared that he should be the ruler and that
he should ask the spirit to make him the ruler of the jungle. They also asked
him to seek from the spirit a second head and a second pair of arms to collect
and write all the advice they gave so that with two heads and two pairs of
arms, he could effectively govern the
entire jungle.
The Beaver happily went to the spirit and asked for an extra head and extra pair of arms .He had hardly spoken before he was two-headed and four-armed. He no longer looked as one of the aam animals’ tribe and seemed to be worse off than before. As he began to move towards his jungledom to get to the seat of power, the aam animals could not identify with the transformed Beaver and considering him as a kind of demon hammered him with stones and sticks.
Moral: The leader who refuses to exercise his wits and seeks advice from all and sundry will perish.
The Beaver happily went to the spirit and asked for an extra head and extra pair of arms .He had hardly spoken before he was two-headed and four-armed. He no longer looked as one of the aam animals’ tribe and seemed to be worse off than before. As he began to move towards his jungledom to get to the seat of power, the aam animals could not identify with the transformed Beaver and considering him as a kind of demon hammered him with stones and sticks.
Moral: The leader who refuses to exercise his wits and seeks advice from all and sundry will perish.
The Talkative Tortoise
Once upon a
time, there was a tortoise Selfie and two geese by the name Aresses and Beejapa. The tortoise made friends with the two geese
who used to come and visit him at the pond. All of them were together for many
years. Selfie by dint of hardwork and iron will became the ruler of the pond.
But after fifteen years or more, Selfie felt restricted to stay in the pond and
in consultation with his geese friends decided to migrate to more spacious land
where he could rule with greater vigour and steely courage.
The three friends decided to leave the pond and to go to a distant place and conquer it and impose their rule and authority. But it was not that easy for Selfie to migrate to such a distant place although it was quite easy for the geese as they could fly. The poor tortoise could not fly and to cover that distance on foot was really difficult.
All of them had a conversation, as to what could be a possible solution for this problem. The geese suggested a plan, according to which, tortoise would have to hold a piece of stick by his mouth and which would be carried slowly while holding its two ends by them. The only condition was that the tortoise should not speak; otherwise he would fall and die spontaneously. The geese were worried because they knew that the tortoise was very talkative and it was difficult for him to keep his mouth shut. The tortoise understood their logic and promised not to open his mouth during the entire journey.
Before starting their journey, the geese again cautioned their friend not to open his mouth in any case. With this instruction, the geese held the stick ends in their beaks and the tortoise held the stick in the middle with his teeth. Thus, they started their journey. They flew higher and higher, over hills, valleys, fields and plains. Ultimately, they flew over a town.
All the inhabitants of the new land were surprised to see such a strange scene. They started laughing and clapping, to see the geese carrying tortoise like that. Their shouting and laughing excited the tortoise. He thought he should rouse them to a higher pitch to turn their cheer to jeer at the rulers of their land. He misunderstood their clapping that they wanted to make him their ruler in place of the existing rulers. Unable to control his excitement, he opened his mouth to speak. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he lost his grip on the stick and fell down. So, the ambition of the poor tortoise got lost because of his impatience.
Moral: Rein in your talk if you want to reign.
The three friends decided to leave the pond and to go to a distant place and conquer it and impose their rule and authority. But it was not that easy for Selfie to migrate to such a distant place although it was quite easy for the geese as they could fly. The poor tortoise could not fly and to cover that distance on foot was really difficult.
All of them had a conversation, as to what could be a possible solution for this problem. The geese suggested a plan, according to which, tortoise would have to hold a piece of stick by his mouth and which would be carried slowly while holding its two ends by them. The only condition was that the tortoise should not speak; otherwise he would fall and die spontaneously. The geese were worried because they knew that the tortoise was very talkative and it was difficult for him to keep his mouth shut. The tortoise understood their logic and promised not to open his mouth during the entire journey.
Before starting their journey, the geese again cautioned their friend not to open his mouth in any case. With this instruction, the geese held the stick ends in their beaks and the tortoise held the stick in the middle with his teeth. Thus, they started their journey. They flew higher and higher, over hills, valleys, fields and plains. Ultimately, they flew over a town.
All the inhabitants of the new land were surprised to see such a strange scene. They started laughing and clapping, to see the geese carrying tortoise like that. Their shouting and laughing excited the tortoise. He thought he should rouse them to a higher pitch to turn their cheer to jeer at the rulers of their land. He misunderstood their clapping that they wanted to make him their ruler in place of the existing rulers. Unable to control his excitement, he opened his mouth to speak. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he lost his grip on the stick and fell down. So, the ambition of the poor tortoise got lost because of his impatience.
Moral: Rein in your talk if you want to reign.
The Little Mice and the Big Elephants
Once upon a
time, a jungle was ruined by repeated invasions by lions, tigers and even
snakes. The jungle paths got totally damaged. All the holes and marshes, sloughs
and swamps were destroyed on the whole. Due to this, the inhabitants of the
jungle were forced to leave their habitats and settle somewhere else. Finding
the place vacant, the mice began to live in the ruined jungle. Soon their
number grew into hundreds and thousands.
There was a big lake located near the ruined jungle. A herd of elephants, massive and strong used to visit the lake for drinking water. This was the only way available to them, to reach the lake. On their way to the lake, the elephants lorded over every creature that was present and crushed hundreds of mice daily under their heavy feet. By this callous action of the arrogant elephants, the population of the mice was affected. The problem was getting bigger and bigger day by day.
In order to find a solution to this problem, the mice held a meeting. It was decided that a request should be made to the king of the elephants regarding the problem. The leader of the Mice, Kejri met the King Elephant, Kango and asked, ‘Sir, we live in the ruins of the village, but every time when your herd crosses the village, thousands of us get crushed under the colossal feet of your herd. Kindly change your ways and permit us to live in peace. We promise to help you in the hour of your need, if you allow us our simple life.”
The king elephant laughed on hearing this and replied, ‘ Kejri, you mice are very small to be of any help to giants like us. But doesn’t matter, we would favor you by changing our lordly ways and our route to reach the lake and making you safer’. Kejri thanked the king elephant and returned to his flock of aam rodents.
One day a group of elephant-hunters came from the West and trapped the group of elephants in huge strong nets. The elephants struggled hard to free themselves, but all in vain. Suddenly, the king of elephants remembered the promise of Kejri, who had talked earlier about helping the elephants when needed. He summoned one of the elephants of his herd which had not been trapped, to go and contact Keji, the leader of the mice. Kejri was smart and intelligent and he told the elephant s’ envoy that he and his aam mice would outsmart the elephant-hunters provided the elephants kept their word and not wear them down and crush them.
On getting the promise of the elephants, Kejri, on his part kept his word and immediately took his entire group of mice to rescue the herd. He found the elephants trapped in a thick net. The mice set themselves on the task. They nibbled the thick net at thousands of spots making it loose. The elephants broke the loose net and got free. They were grateful to the mice for their great help and became friends for ever. Kango and Kejri made their companions- the elephants and the mice to live happily forever.
Moral: Sometimes a weak looking person may prove stronger than others.
There was a big lake located near the ruined jungle. A herd of elephants, massive and strong used to visit the lake for drinking water. This was the only way available to them, to reach the lake. On their way to the lake, the elephants lorded over every creature that was present and crushed hundreds of mice daily under their heavy feet. By this callous action of the arrogant elephants, the population of the mice was affected. The problem was getting bigger and bigger day by day.
In order to find a solution to this problem, the mice held a meeting. It was decided that a request should be made to the king of the elephants regarding the problem. The leader of the Mice, Kejri met the King Elephant, Kango and asked, ‘Sir, we live in the ruins of the village, but every time when your herd crosses the village, thousands of us get crushed under the colossal feet of your herd. Kindly change your ways and permit us to live in peace. We promise to help you in the hour of your need, if you allow us our simple life.”
The king elephant laughed on hearing this and replied, ‘ Kejri, you mice are very small to be of any help to giants like us. But doesn’t matter, we would favor you by changing our lordly ways and our route to reach the lake and making you safer’. Kejri thanked the king elephant and returned to his flock of aam rodents.
One day a group of elephant-hunters came from the West and trapped the group of elephants in huge strong nets. The elephants struggled hard to free themselves, but all in vain. Suddenly, the king of elephants remembered the promise of Kejri, who had talked earlier about helping the elephants when needed. He summoned one of the elephants of his herd which had not been trapped, to go and contact Keji, the leader of the mice. Kejri was smart and intelligent and he told the elephant s’ envoy that he and his aam mice would outsmart the elephant-hunters provided the elephants kept their word and not wear them down and crush them.
On getting the promise of the elephants, Kejri, on his part kept his word and immediately took his entire group of mice to rescue the herd. He found the elephants trapped in a thick net. The mice set themselves on the task. They nibbled the thick net at thousands of spots making it loose. The elephants broke the loose net and got free. They were grateful to the mice for their great help and became friends for ever. Kango and Kejri made their companions- the elephants and the mice to live happily forever.
Moral: Sometimes a weak looking person may prove stronger than others.
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