The Panchatantra is a unique contribution of Ancient India to the world, particularly to the world literature, that has equally delighted the young and the old, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, high and low - for over two thousand years. It has triumphed over the greatest obstacles of language, custom and religion, and made an unparalled progress from its native land to all the civilized parts of the globe - as it continues to delight everyone to this very day.
This Indian collection of fables, reveals the basic knowledge of wisdom that makes one's life "richer, happier, and fuller". Because of its elegant style in which it packages the wisdom of the ages, it has the most profound influence on the world literature - amongst all works of Indian literature.
Panchatantra has served as a source, directly or indirectly, for many works of modern literature, which can be traced to Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, Giovanni Boccaccio and even William Shakspeare's works. In 1800 AD, Jonathan Scott epitomized the Bengal manuscript as 'Tales, Anecdotes and Letters'. Most people in modern world may not have heard of the Panchatantra. But anyone with any claim to literary education would be familiar to commonly used titles like 'Fables of Bidpai' or the 'Tales of Kalila and Dimna' - which are merely translations or adaptations of Panchatantra. The fact that even before 1888, there were at least 20 English translations of this great Eastern Classic - makes one wonder how widely circulated this book was. As a matter of fact, no other book, other than the Bible, have ever enjoyed such intensive worldwide circulation.
Although the original texts of the Panchatantra are long lost, it survived through numerous commentaries and recensions. The most notable of them being the Hitopadesha by Narayana, Durgasimha's Kannada translation of 1031 AD, Purnabhadra's recension of 1199 AD, and Franklin Edgerton's 1924 reconstruction of the Sanskrit text of the original Panchatantra.
