Animal charm

How stories from the Panchatantra, which recently got UNESCO recognition, became timeless tales with universal appeal

- REYA MEHROTRA

Stories know no bounds. Throw the rules governing time and space at them, and they would probably guffaw in unison.

While traces of knowledge exchange between continents remain debatable, striking parallels found in Indian and Greek epics stun readers to this date. One such significant export of knowledge from the Indian subcontinent remains that of the Panchatantra tales, which has been translated from Sanskrit to Middle Persian or Pahlavi, Arabic, other eastern and western languages over the years.

The Panchatantra’s time- and space-travelling ability was the running theme of the exhibition titled ‘From Kalila wa-Dimna to La Fontaine: Travelling through Fables’at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Open since March, the exhibition traces the journey of the animal fables from their ancient Indian origins to their Arabic avatar—Kalila wa-Dimna—and the French version— Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables.

Moreover, this May, the Panchatantra—reportedly written between 200 BCE and 300 BCE by Vishnu Sharma—got UNESCO recognition. The Panchatantra, Ramcharitmanas and Sahrdayaloka-Locana were included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register.

Author and literary translator Rohini Chowdhury, who translated the original text to English in 2017, says the Panchatantra is not just a work for children.