by Visnu Sarma
the monkey killed the king.’
And Wary, the jackal, continued:
(418) ‘Skilled in nothing but slander,
of warm affection the destroyer;
with one like you making the decision,
nothing right or good can ever be done.
‘And further:
(419) A virtuous man will never perform
an act the world will be quick to blame.
In direst straits he will do no harm
by doing that which will stain his fame.
‘Also:
(420) By sense of family-honour imbued,
a wise man though placed in direst straits
does not swerve from the path of rectitude.
Eaten, then dropped by a peacock, a shell
is not robbed of its whiteness, natural.
‘As it is taught:
(421) Wrongdoing will always remain wrongful;
a wise man will not direct his mind towards it.
However tormented by thirst one is,
none drinks the water of puddles
that lie on well-trodden highways.
‘Moreover:
(422) Do only that which it is right to do:
even as the breath struggles in the throat.
What is not right, do not attempt to do;
even as the breath struggles in the throat.’
Thus admonished by Wary, whose words were spoken in accordance with the precepts of moral wisdom, Wily, the jackal whose mind worked in crooked ways, quietly slunk away, because these words were sheer poison to him.
At this point, both Tawny and Lively, whose minds were blinded by rage, renewed the battle in which Tawny killed Lively, after which his rage subsided. Then, recollecting past affection, his eyes filled with tears of pity. As he wiped them off with a blood-drenched paw, Tawny, overwhelmed by remorse, lamented, ‘Ha! Ha! O misery! What a dastardly crime! Lively, who was my second self, lies here slain, and by me; in slaying him I have only hurt myself. How wisely it has been said:
(423) Parts of a kingdom may be lost,
or a retainer rich in worth;
the discerning man rues the latter;
for loss of retainers is death to monarchs.
Lands once lost may be easily regained,
but retainers of worth are not readily obtained.’
Seeing Tawny shaken, overcome by irresolution and lack of confidence, Wily, the jackal, ever self-confident to the point of audacity, drew near him, slowly, by degrees.
‘Ah! My lord,’ Wily expostulated with the lion, ‘Where’s the propriety or logic in this? Your Lordship has slain your rival, yet I witness such lack of firmness—of confidence! As it has been wisely observed:
(424) A tender-hearted king,
a gluttonous Brāhmana,
an evil-minded companion,
a self-willed wife, fancy-free,
a menial quite contrary,
a man in authority negligent:
throw them all out, out of sight,
if they don’t do what is right.
(425) If a father or brother, a son or friend,
is intent on practising on your life,
he doubtless deserves to be slain,
if you wish to survive and prosper.
(426) Go where you find happiness
even if it’s far to go;
seek to learn from one learned
even if he’s only a child;
give your own body to a suppliant;
cut off your arm if it turns malignant.
‘As for the morality of princes, it has nothing in common with that of ordinary men. As it has been wisely said:
(427) A state cannot be governed in accordance
with the nature and norms of the common man.
What are vices in ordinary men
those very vices are virtues in kings.
‘And further:
(428) The policy of princes is protean,
assumes many forms like a courtesan!
by turns true or false; now harsh, now sweet-spoken;
cruel, but compassionate too; at once
avaricious and munificent;
amasser of great wealth and opulence,
yet, a perpetual prodigal, extravagant.’
Seeing that Wily had not come back, Wary now sought him out and found him sitting close to Lord Tawny. And Wary began exhorting him, ‘As for you, sir, you don’t have a clue to what statesmanship really is. Since dissension is the cause of destruction of two people who have enjoyed mutual affection, it is not a policy that good ministers ought to pursue. Nor is it an example of statesmanship to raise doubts and suspicions in the master’s mind and place him in jeopardy by advocating war, when all the other policy expedients exist and are available: such as conciliation, winning over the rival by generous gifts, or by attempts to change the situation. As the proverb says:
(429) The fortunes of the God of Wealth96
and Wielder of the Thunderbolt97 as well,
of Gods of Winds and Waters too
were foiled and crushed by petty strife;
no one ever comes out victorious every time.
(430) Those who discard statesmanship command war;
those lacking insight strive to start a war;
but sages commend statesmanship in their texts;
texts state the policies and their employment.
‘Therefore, it is important that ministers refrain from advocating war as a policy to their masters. As it has been wisely stated:
(431) Where men of integrity, accomplished,
engaged in fostering their master’s interests
and plotting the ruin of his opponents,
choose to dwell in palaces, free from greed,
those kings will never be subdued by foes.
‘Therefore:
(432) Always give wholesome if bitter advice:
dangers loom when royal servitors
constantly speak only what is nice.
‘Moreover:
(433) Asked or unasked by their royal master,
if ministers proclaim what is pleasing
but harmful to the interest of the king,
they’ll cause Royal Fortune to waste away.
‘And further, the master on his part should make it a point to consult every single one of his ministers; having solicited their several opinions, the king should then deliberate over the counsel offered by each and decide for himself what is to his advantage and what is not. For sometimes it happens that a fact once established, appears in a different light due to some confusion of mind.98 As the adage points out:
(434) The sky looks like the flat roof of a house;
the firefly glows like flame;
but the sky’s vault has no roof as we know;
the firefly is not fire.
‘Also:
(435) What is false appears to be true;
what is true seems untrue;
things are perceived in various ways;
they should be looked at with care, in any case.
‘Therefore, it is not right that the master should implicitly rely on whatever a retainer who has strayed from the course of statesmanship has to say; for the reason, that a crafty retainer keeping his own advancement in the forefront, pulls the wool over his master’s eyes by presenting him with incredibly artful arguments; facts as they are not. The master should undertake an action only after deep deliberation: as the proverb puts it:
(436) One who weighs a plan deliberated upon
several times by trusted friends; and himself
reflects upon, applying the Law’s dictates
with discerning mind, then carries it out,
he truly is a man of judgement; only he
is the fit and chosen resort for Fortune, and for Fame.
‘Therefore, the master should not turn into a person whose mind retreats before the persuasive speech of others. Accurately understanding other men from every angle, he
should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages, the ultimate consequences, of their counsel. Master of his own thinking and decisions, uninfluenced by other pressures, the master should be fully cognizant in his own mind of every single aspect of his responsibilities and functions.’
So ends Book One known as the Estrangement of Friends. Of which the opening verse runs thus:
(437) Oh! What a beautiful friendship it was!
of noble bull and lion majestic—
In the deep, dark woods it waxed and grew strong,
then—along came a jackal treacherous;
consumed by greed, he hacked it down.
And—Alas! It died.
BOOK II
Winning of Friends
And now begins the second book known as the Winning of Friends, whose opening verse runs thus:
(1) Lacking resources, destitute of wealth,
wise men possessed of knowledge and insight,
are quick to accomplish their desired aims,
as the crow and mole, the deer and tortoise did.
‘Oh! How was that?’ asked the princes eagerly. And Viṣṇu Śarma began the tale.
In the southern land flourished the city known as Pramadāropya. Not too far away grew a lofty banyan tree with mighty trunk and branches providing a home for all creatures. As it has been said:
(2) Deer recline in its shade;
birds in multitudes gather to roost
darkening its dark-green canopy of leaves;
troops of monkeys cling to the trunk;
while hollows hum with insect-throngs,
flowers are boldly kissed by honey-bees;
O! What happiness its every limb showers
on assemblages of various creatures;
Such a tree deserves all praise,
others only burden the Earth.
A crow named Lightwing,1 had his home in that tree. One day as he was about to fly towards the city in search of food, he saw a fowler approaching the tree with every intention of snaring birds; for he carried a net and a club in his hands and hunting dogs followed at his heels. He was a man of fierce appearance with splayed hands and feet, bloodshot eyes, bulging genitals; thickset, with a very rough, gnarled frame and swarthy complexion; his hair was knotted in a bunch on top of his head. Why describe him at great length? Suffice it to say that he appeared a second god of destruction, noose in hand; the very incarnation of evil and the soul of unrighteousness; prime instructor in crime and bosom friend of Death.
On seeing him, Lightwing was alarmed and started reflecting nervously, ‘Oho! What crime is this fellow planning to commit now? To cause me mortal harm? Or, alas, has he some other purpose in mind?’ With a burning desire to find out, he kept close behind the fowler.
Soon, the fowler picked a spot, spread his net out, scattered some grain and hid not too far away. The birds that lived there checked by Lightwing’s warning looked askance at the grain as if it were deadly poison and remained quiet.
At this juncture, Sheenneck,2 King of Doves, surrounded by hundreds of dove-retainers, who had been flying around in search of food, saw the scattered grain from far away. In spite of Lightwing’s strong dissuasions, greedy-tongued Sheenneck, alighted on that large net to peck. The moment he settled on the robber’s net, he, with his whole retinue, was caught in its meshes. Nor was it any fault of his; it happened because of an adverse fate. As it is wisely observed:
(3) How did Rāvaṇa fail to consider
how wrong it was to steal another’s wife!
How too was Rāma unable to see
that a golden deer could never be!
And how did Yudhisthira as well fall prey
playing a game of dice, to calamity!
As a rule, in the face of adversity
that causes men’s minds to whirl in a daze
the intelligence loses its clarity.
Further:
(4) Fettered fast by doom’s deadly coils,
the feeling heart fate-burdened,
the judgement of even the great
goes with twisted, crooked gait.
Now the fowler seeing things turn out so well darted out in great glee with his club held high over his head. Sheenneck though deeply distressed by the calamity that had befallen him and his whole retinue and seeing the fowler advancing, yet with great presence of mind, reassured his followers, saying, ‘Have no fear, friends, have no fear; for:
(5) Though caught in the throes of calamities
if a person’s wits do not forsake him,
he will safely cross to the far shore
and enjoy supreme happiness and more.
‘We now have to be of one mind; all of us acting together have to carry away this net. If we err in this by not acting in unison, we shall never be able to carry it off. In the absence of a concerted effort, death will be the certain outcome. As it is wisely said:
(6) Single-bellied, double-throated
the poor Bharunda birds perished
eating one thing and another:
So too will the disunited.’
‘O! How did that happen,’ clamoured the doves. And Sheenneck then began the tale of Bharunda Birds.
‘Beside a certain lake, there lived a species of birds known as Bharunda. They each had two necks but only one stomach. Now, one day, one of these birds, was rambling around happily when one of his necks chanced upon some ambrosia spilt somewhere there; whereupon his other neck pleaded, ‘Give me half of that.’ When the first neck refused outright, the second neck, mad with rage began searching for poison and finding some, ingested it. As the bird had only one stomach it dropped dead.
‘Which is why I said to you before, “Single-bellied, double-throated…” and the rest of it. To have a common purpose is to be successful,’ concluded Sheenneck.
Paying heed to this piece of advice, the doves impelled by the strong urge to survive and live, now took hold of the net all together and soared into the sky, high up in an instant, no more than it takes an arrow to shoot upwards out of sight. Then, holding the net aloft as if it were a canopy, the birds travelled on, free from fear.
The fowler, on his part, seeing his net carried away by the flock of doves, gazed at the sight with upturned face, lost in astonishment, thinking, ‘Ha! How strange! Never have I witnessed anything like this before!’ And he recited this verse:
(7) ‘So long as these birds amongst themselves agree,
they might succeed in carrying my net away:
but once they quarrel and start to disagree,
there’s not the slightest doubt they’ll become my prey.’
Convinced of this the fowler started to follow the birds. Sheenneck, noticing that cruel fellow pursuing him and his flock, and realizing quite clearly what the man was upto, remained calm and collected. In an unhurried manner, he led his flock over regions uneven and rugged with hills and shrubs and trees where the going was rough.
Now, Lightwing, the crow, who was watching it all wondering at both Sheenneck’s circumspect behaviour and at the fowler’s foolish attempts to follow the birds, gave up all thought of foraging and filled with consuming curiosity, began flying behind the flock of doves, frequently looking up and down as he flew, at the birds above and the fowler below. As he followed the doves, Lightwing thought to himself, ‘What will happen next? What will this noble soul do now? And what will that perfidious villain think of next?’
In the meantime, the fowler, following the birds on foot, realized that the flight of doves was safe from him on account of the difficulties of the terrain. Losing hope, he turned back, disappointed, muttering to himself:
(8) ‘What is not to be can never be,
what will be comes effortlessly;
what one is not destined to have is lost
even as it lies on the palm of one’s hand.’
‘And further:
(9) If fates be adverse, even wealth that comes,
flies away: and it takes something more as it goes.
This is the way Kubera’s treasures behave!
‘To say nothing of not netting any birds for food, that net which was the mainstay for the support of the family, that too is lost.’
When Sheenneck saw that the fowler was turning back having lost hope, he addressed his flock. ‘Well, friends, now we may all go on our way in peace, without fear: for it looks as if that villainous fowler has gone back. Our best bet now is to travel to the city known as Pramadāropya. Because, in the north-eastern quarter of the city lives my dear friend, Goldy, the mole. He will sever our bonds in a trice; so skilful is he that in no time he will release us from our distress.’
Eager to get hold of Goldy,3 the mole, and have him help them out, the birds followed Sheenneck’s advice. Soon, they reached Goldy’s fortress-den and alighted near its entrance.
And there it was:
(10) To guard against impending dangers, the mole,
in moral and political wisdom
expert, built his burrow of hundred mouths;
a fortress to live within safe and sound.
In the circumstances, alarmed at the sound of birds alighting, Goldy with timorous heart, took one small step no bigger than a cat’s paw, along the path leading out of his fortress-den and stood peering out, wondering, ‘What on earth is happening?’
Sheenneck, however, took his stand at the entrance to the burrow and spoke as follows, ‘Ah! Dear friend Goldy, come out quickly; come and see the plight I am in.’
Goldy listened carefully to these words but remaining within his fortress called out, ‘Friend, who may you be? What brings you here? And what sort of trouble are you in? Tell me.’ To which Sheenneck answered, ‘Why, I am your old friend, Sheenneck, Lord of Doves; so pray, come out quickly.’
Shivers of joy coursed through Goldy’s little frame when he heard these words; his heart trilled with delight and he hurried out of his den saying,
(11) ‘To the home of the self-disciplined,
friends full of affection come daily,
bringing delight to the householder’s eyes.’
Taking one good look at Sheenneck who with his whole retinue was caught in the meshes of the fowler’s net, Goldy enquired sadly. ‘Ah! My friend, what is this? How did all this happen? Tell me.’
‘Where’s the need to ask me, my friend, when you know it all quite well,’ replied Sheenneck. ‘As the saying goes: