panchatantra ki kahaaniyaan

i remember my dad narrating these wonderful stories to me many moons ago, and me listening to them in rapt attention. some, i also read through the lovely "amar chitra katha" series. perhaps the warmth of my dad's embrace as he took me on many exciting journeys with all sorts of animals, and the imagination these journeys fired in me, led me to revisit them.

visnu sarma's "the pancatantra" is a fascinating collection. it puts together not only the fables themselves, but also an exhaustive introduction that brings out the depth of knowledge this precious work embodies. it is replete with translations of the original sanskrit verses, some of which do not even seem to belong to a body of 'animal stories for children', as the panchatantra is often categorised. the book is like a key that unlocks the door to a magical, long-forgotten world, one where the child and the adult can be equally mesmerised. as i read through some of the stories, they slowly come back to me from the hidden recesses of my mind, but with new meaning. this book reminded me that the most powerful thoughts in the world can be conveyed in the simplest and most unpretentious manner.

there are many many stories that i would love to share...but for now, i will instead quote a few verses.

"How did Ravana fail to consider
how wrong it was to steal another's wife!
How too was Rama unable to see
that a golden deer could never be!
And how did Yudhishthira as well fall prey
playing game of dice, to calamity!
As a rule, in the face of adversity
that causes men's mind to whirl in a daze
the intelligence loses its clarity.
Fettered fast by doom's deadly coils
the feeling heart fate-burdened,
the judgement of even the great
goes with twisted, crooked gait.
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."

i always wondered why ravana and yudhishthira did what they did. especially yudhishthira..i could never come to terms with how a righteous and respectble king could objectify his own wife and pawn her like a possession (ravana, i reasoned, fell prey to lust). this verse does not yet give me a straight answer, but offers at least some consolation.

and also:
"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."

i only wish that i had learnt this without searing pain. many other verses and stories are swimming in my head. in time, i hope to construct my own understanding of them.