Kalila and Dimna or The Panchatantra (also known in Europe since
1481 as The Fables of Bidpai) is a multi-layered, inter-connected and variable
arrangement of animal stories, with one story leading into another,
sometimes three or four deep. These arrangements have contributed to
world literature for over 2000 years, migrating across ancient cultures in
a multitude of written and oral formats. All our beast fables from Aesop
and the Buddhist Jataka Tales through La Fontaine to Uncle Remus owe this
strange, shape-shifting 'book' a huge debt.
In its original Arabic format, KALILA AND DIMNA (The Panchatantra being its
Sanskrit precursor), ostensibly constitutes a handbook for rulers, a so-called
'Mirror for Princes' illustrating indirectly, through a cascade of teaching
stories and verse, how to (and how not to!) run the kingdom of your life.
In their slyly profound grasp of human nature at its best (and worst!) these
animal fables, usually avoiding any moralistic human criticism, serve up digestible wise counsel for us all.
