The Pancatantra

by Visnu Sarma

  The princess joyously accepted the ailing prince as her husband and looked upon him as a god. She accompanied him to another country. There, in one of the great cities, they found a dwelling house situated at the edge of a large pond. Leaving her husband in charge of the house, the princess accompanied by her maids went to the market to buy butter and oil, salt, spices and rice and other necessary household supplies.

  When the princess returned with the maids after completing all her shopping, what did she see but the prince fast asleep with his head resting against an anthill. And from his mouth emerged the hooded head of a snake taking the air. Likewise another snake had emerged from the anthill and was also taking the air.

  As the two snakes confronted each other their eyes reddened with anger. The snake that had emerged from the anthill, was the first to speak. ‘Oh! You vile creature! How can you torment this prince, who is so perfectly handsome, in this cruel manner?’ The snake standing within the prince’s mouth hissed furiously and said, ‘Vile creature yourself! How can you defile those two pots filled with the magic drink, that are hidden within the anthill?’

  And so, the two snakes lashing out at each other revealed each other’s secrets. The anthill snake continued, ‘Oh! You vile creature! Do you really believe that nobody knows the simple remedy by which you can be destroyed? That by drinking a decoction of black mustard seeds, you can be easily killed?’

  The snake in the prince’s belly angrily hissed back, ‘Ha! And you believe that nobody knows the way to get rid of you! Why, by pouring boiling water into the anthill, you can be destroyed.’

  The princess who had been listening to all this, concealed behind some bushes, now did exactly as the angry exchange between the two snakes had conveyed to her. Following the treatments that she had overheard when the snakes revealed their mutual weak points, she restored her husband to sound health and also gained great prosperity. She then set out towards her native land where she was joyously welcomed and honoured by her parents and kinsfolk. There she lived happily ever after with the prince, enjoying all the pleasures allotted to her by Destiny.

  ‘That is why I said to you, “Creatures that do not keep secret…” and the rest of it, my lord,’ concluded Rampart Ear.

  King Foe Crusher being convinced by the arguments he had just heard followed the advice conveyed in them and spared the life of the crow Live Firm. Red Eye who had been watching it all laughed bitterly in his heart and he spoke again, thus, ‘Alas! What a terrible calamity! Our lord stands ruined, completely ruined by the perverse and evil advice given by you honourable gentlemen. As the saying goes:

  (177) Where honour is paid to those

  who deserve none;

  and those worthy of honour

  are contemned;

  there, Fear, Famine and Death, these three

  prevail, unabated, free.

  ‘Besides:

  (178) Before his eyes he sees a foul act done

  yet the fool takes no offence, but is pleased.

  The chariot-maker bore high on his head

  his errant wife and paramour as well.’

  The other ministers at once chorused, ‘Tell us; how did that happen?’ And the Honourable Red Eye then began the tale of The Chariot-maker cuckolded.

  In a certain settlement lived a chariot-maker whose wife was a loose woman with a bad reputation. It occurred to him once that he should put her character to the test. ‘But how shall I carry it out?’ he asked himself. ‘We know the saying:

  (179) If ever fire feels cool

  and the hare-marked god42 burns;

  if ever knaves are good,

  then women will be true.

  ‘That she is unfaithful I know from general report. For we have heard it said:

  (180) What is not seen, what is not heard

  in texts secular and sacred,

  if it is found anywhere in this world

  people are sure to know all about it.’

  Having reflected in this manner, the chariot-maker told his wife, ‘Dearest, tomorrow morning I am leaving for the next town on some business which will keep me away for several days. Why don’t you prepare something nice for me that I can take for the journey.’

  His wife was delighted to hear this. Quickly she dropped everything she was doing and quivering with excitement started preparing delicious food that was almost all butter and sugar for her husband to take with him. The jingle puts the facts neatly:

  (181) Foul and rainy days

  when dark, heavy clouds lowering

  make the city’s highways

  dangerous for walking,

  are happy days

  for lascivious women

  with heavy hips swinging,

  whose husbands are journeying

  in far-off places.

  The chariot-maker left his house early next morning. Having made sure that her husband had left, the woman, her face all wreathed in smiles, spent a good part of the day beautifying herself. Then she went to the house of a former lover and said, ‘Listen, that scurvy knave, my husband, has left town on some business. When everyone is asleep, you can come to my house.’ And it was all arranged.

  In the meantime, the chariot-maker who had spent all day in the forest, returned home at dark and quietly slipped into his house by a side door. He entered the bedchamber and crawling under the bedstead, lay still.

  At this point, the lover, Devadatta, also entered the chariot-maker’s house and got into bed. Seeing the fellow in his bed, the chariot-maker’s heart burned with anger; furious thoughts raced through his mind, ‘Shall I get up and kill this fellow, right this very moment?’ he asked himself, ‘Or, shall I wait till they are in each other’s embrace and engrossed in love-making? Or, wait a minute, shall I bide my time and see how she acts towards her lover? And listen to their lovetalk?’

  Meanwhile, the wife came in; quietly locking the door securely, she was about to get into bed when her foot accidentally struck against the body of her husband lying hidden under the bedstead. She grasped the situation immediately, ‘Ah! I see,’ she said to herself. ‘It is that husband of mine under the bedstead: no doubt he is planning to test my fidelity. Well, let me give him a real, good taste of womancraft.’

  As she was mulling over what precisely she would do, her lover, Devadatta, was impatient to start the loveplay. The chariot-maker’s wife now folded her hands in respect and pleaded with her lover. ‘Oh! Noble gentleman! You should not touch me.’

  ‘Not touch you?’ spluttered the lover quite miffed, ‘then why in god’s name did you invite me over?’

  ‘Oh! Sir,’ she said, ‘You see, I went early this morning to ąandikā’s43 shrine to offer worship to the goddess. Then, quite unexpectedly, I heard a voice in the air, saying, “Alas! My daughter! What can I do? I know you are my ardent devotee. But in six months’ time, Fate’s hand will strike a blow against you and you will become a widow.”

  ‘And I humbly suggested, “Great Goddess! Since you have knowledge of the impending calamity, you must also know of a remedy to prevent it. There must be some means to adopt by which my husband will live to be a hundred years.”

  “Yes, indeed, there is,” replied the goddess, “but only if you are prepared to adopt that remedy.”

  ‘Hearing her words I replied immediately, “O! Divine Lady! Even if it should cost me my life I shall willingly do it; please instruct me.”

  ‘The divine lady spoke gently, “If you go to bed with another man and embrace him in love, then the untimely death that threatens your husband will pass on to that other man; and your husband will live to be a hundred years.”

  ‘Only for this reason, sir, did i approach you and requested you to come over. And now do what you have been so eager to do; the words of divinity can never prove false.

  Her lover’s face shone, lit up by secret laughter; and he straight away began performing as required. As for the chariot-maker, colossal fool that he was, he thrilled in every pore of his body listening to
what his wife had said. He leapt out from his hiding place under the bed crying, ‘Well done! Well done, my faithful wife; well done, Gladdener of the family! Giving credence to the town’s malicious gossip I pretended to leave town to put your fidelity to the test. Returning home stealthily, I crept under the bed. So, come, come, my dearest love; embrace me.’

  So saying he took his wife in his arms and then lifting her on to his shoulder turned to the lover, Devadatta, to say, ‘Oh! Large-hearted and noble soul; it is as a reward for my past meritorious works that you have come here this night. For it is by your favour that I have this day obtained the full measure of life of a hundred years. Let me honour you; you should also mount my shoulder.’ And he forcibly lifted the reluctant lover on to his shoulder. Bearing both his wife and her paramour on his shoulders, the foolish chariot-maker went out dancing in the street, stopping at the doors of the houses of each of his relatives.

  ‘Therefore, my lords, I say this to you,’ concluded the Hon. Red Eye. ‘“Before his eyes he sees a foul act done…” and so on. We have been pulled up by the roots and completely destroyed. What more is there to say! And what wisdom is contained in these lines:

  (182) The wise and experienced regard

  those who disregard good advice

  to follow policies perverse and hostile

  as foes in the guise of friends.

  ‘Furthermore:

  (183) Served by impolitic counsellors,

  a king who fails to act

  as time and place dictate, sees destroyed

  advantages that he already possessed;

  they vanish like darkness at sunrise.’

  However, disregarding Red Eye’s sage counsel, the owls got ready to pick live Firm up and transport him to their fortress. As he was being carried there Live Firm began protesting in hollow terms.

  ‘Ah! My lord,’ he told King Foe Crusher. ‘Considering that I can serve no useful purpose, the state I am in, why is Your Majesty taking me under your wing with such solicitude? The truth is that I earnestly desire to enter the blazing fire. You can serve me best by providing me with the fire that will be my deliverance.’

  Red Eye at once caught on to his inmost thoughts and realized what Live Firm’s true intent was. ‘Why would you want to immolate yourself, sir?’ he queried.

  Live Firm’s prompt reply was, ‘It is only for your sakes that I have been reduced to this pitiable condition by Cloud Hue, King of the Crows. I wish therefore to be reborn as an owl to have my revenge on him.’

  Hearing his words, Red Eye who knew the twists and turns of realpolitik in and out, retorted, ‘My dear fellow, you are not only crafty in your actions but skilled in the use of deceitful speech. Granting that you are born again as an owl, I know that you will still think highly of your corvine origins. There is a tale that well illustrates my point:

  (184) Having spurned the sun and the rain,

  the wind and the mountain,

  who came as suitors for her hand,

  the mouse-maiden picked on one of her own kind.

  In the end a person’s true nature

  will speak out loud and clear.’

  ‘I see; and how was that?’ asked Live Firm. And then Red Eye began the tale of The Mouse-Maiden who wed a mouse.

  On the banks of the river Gaṅgā whose waves were flecked with white foam churned up by the confused whirling of fishes frightened by the sound of her waters stumbling and dashing on the jagged, rocky shores, there stood a hermitage thronged by a host of ascetics clad in nothing more than loincloths of bark. These ascetics chastened their bodies severely by subsisting entirely on a diet of roots, fruits and bulbs and the saivala44 plants. They drank only hallowed water in measured amounts and spent their days engrossed in the proper performance of various sacred rites and rituals: silent prayers and meditation, penance and yogic exercise, recitation and chanting of vedic texts to themselves, fasting and performance of sacrifices. The patriarch who headed this hermitage was the great sage Yājnavalkya.

  One day he went down to the Jāhnavī45 to bathe and perform his ablutions. As he was about to carry out the ritual sipping of water46 a tiny baby mouse fell from the beak of a hawk right into his hollowed palm. He gently placed the tiny creature on a banyan leaf, bathed again in the river and repeated his ablutions to purify himself of the defilement. Then by his ascetic powers, the sage changed the little mouse into a baby girl, picked her up and took her with him to his own dwelling in the hermitage.

  Addressing his wife who was childless, he said, ‘Gracious lady: here, take this little child who has come into our lives and bring her up as your own daughter with tender care.’

  His wife was pleased, and accepted the foundling and reared her with love and care, petting and pampering her no end.

  When the girl was twelve years of age, the mother noticed that she was nubile and pointed it out to the sage. ‘My dear lord,’ she said, ‘How is it that you have not become aware that the right time for our daughter to be married might soon pass?’

  To this the sage replied, ‘yes, my dear wife, what you have said just now is perfectly true. As we have heard:

  (185) Women are first wed by the Immortals,

  by Fire and Moon, and the Genius47

  of the Waters of Life and Light;

  and only after, by mortals.

  Thus no wrong is done.

  (186) For the Moon gives them radiant purity

  of mind and body,

  and the Fire all the holy perfections;

  the Gandharva makes their speech

  pleasant and decorous;

  therefore are women free of all blemishes.

  (187) Before the monthly flow appears,

  a pure brilliance is hers;

  and after, it is passion’s redness.

  Without breasts or a sense of shame,

  a girl shows no distinguishing gender-signs.

  (188) As womanly allure buds and blossoms,

  it is the Moon who does the bridal rites.

  The Fire’s glow is in the monthly flow,

  the Gandharva is enshrined in her breasts.

  (189) A girl ought to be wedded

  before she enters womanhood.

  Marriage is highly commended

  for girls just eight years old.

  (190) The first signs bring death to the elder brother,

  the budding bosom to the younger;

  passion consummated to all near and dear,

  the monthly flow is death to the father.

  (191) Once a girl is nubile

  she gives herself to whom she will;

  so marry a girl off at a tender age

  said Manu, the self-begotten sage.

  (192) The girl who sees her monthly flow

  while still in the paternal home, living

  unconsecrated by the marriage vows

  will never have a chance for marrying.

  But despised she will remain, looked upon

  as unfruitful and lowest of the low.

  (193) To avoid wrongdoing, a father

  should seek out and arrange a bridegroom

  for his nubile daughter

  from among his equals, or the noblest,

  or pick even one of the vilest.

  ‘I shall give this girl in marriage to one of equal status with her. As we have heard:

  (194) Between those well-matched in wealth,

  between those well-matched by birth,

  a match may be arranged and friendship grow;

  but not between the prosperous and the penniless.

  (195) Family and fortune, learning and virtue,

  good looks and good health and good connections,

  these seven have to be weighed

  when a girl is to be wed,

  other things being of little consequence.

  ‘Therefore, I shall call upon the blessed sun and offer our daughter in marriage to him, if she is pleased to accept him,’ concluded the sage Yājnavalkya.

&nb
sp; ‘Yes, why not; it seems all right to me; do so accordingly,’ said his wife.

  The holy ascetic then invoked the Sun who appeared before him immediately and enquired courteously, ‘Your Holiness; for what purpose have I been summoned?’

  And the sage replied, ‘This is my daughter whom you see here. Pray, marry her.’ With these words, the sage turned to his daughter and asked her, ‘Dear daughter, does this suitor, the blessed lord who is the light of the triple-world please you?’

  ‘Dear father,’ answered the daughter-elect,48 ‘this one? He is one compounded all of blazing heat; he does not please me. Let someone superior to him be summoned.’

  Upon hearing her words the sage enquired of the luminous godhead, ‘Blessed Lord, is there someone greater than you?’ To which the Sun replied, ‘Yes, there is. The Cloud is greater than I am; for when he veils me, I become invisible.’

  The sage then called upon the Cloud and spoke tenderly to his daughter, ‘My dearest child; I’ll give you in marriage to the Cloud.’

  However, she demurred, ‘Oh, Father dear; he is dark-complexioned; leaden in form and spirit. Marry me to someone more excellent than him.’

  The sage now inquired of the Cloud, ‘O, Cloud; is there someone greater than you?’

  ‘Certainly, sir; the Wind; he is much stronger than I am, answered the Cloud.

  So the sage called upon the Wind and addressed his daughter ‘My darling child; let me marry you to the Wind.’

  She objected saying, ‘But, dearest Father; this man is restless and wayward. Please summon someone much better than him.’

  The ascetic now said to the Wind, ‘O, Wind; tell me if there is someone superior to you.’

  ‘Oh yes, sir, the Mountain; he is far superior to me.’

  The ascetic next summoned the Mountain and said to his daughter, ‘My beloved daughter; I shall marry you to the Mountain.’

  But she baulked at the very idea, ‘O! How hard-hearted he is, and stiff-necked, dear father. O, please find me some other suitor.’

  The ascetic wearily asked the Mountain, ‘Oh, great Mountain-King; tell me if there is someone more powerful than you.’

  The Mountain replied, ‘Gladly, Your Holiness. Much more powerful than I are mice.’