Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 489

ANTIQUITY OF THE FABLES
449
After
deposited his little benefactor there, as desired.
expressing his deep gratitude for the signal service the
crab had rendered to him in saving his life, he performed
his ablutions in the sacred river and returned to his own
country, which he reached without further accident.
I will not relate any more of these fables, though most of
them are very instructive. My intention has been merely
to draw the attention of my readers to a work which, in
my opinion, is the most interesting and useful in the whole
range of Hindu literature.
It is impossible to
determine the age of these fables,
no authentic evidence of their date is now extant.
supposed that they were translated into Persian
towards the middle of the sixth century, under the reign
and the fragments which have
of the Emperor Nurjehan
been published in Europe have, no doubt, been extracted
from this Persian translation. Indeed, La Fontaine himself
appears to have gone to it for some of his fables.
The Hindus themselves place the Pancha-tantra among
and the wide popularity
their oldest literary productions
which it enjoys may be said to be some proof in favour of
this opinion.
At any rate the fables contained in this work
appear to be older than those of Aesop. It is uncertain
what was the birthplace of that fabulist whence we may
suppose that he learnt from the Hindu philosophers the art
of making animals and inanimate beings speak, with the
view of teaching mankind their faults.
It is uncertain whether these fables were originally com-
posed by the Brahmin Vishnu-Sarma in verse or in prose.
They were most probably in verse, as that was the recog-
It is at any
nized mode of composition in ancient India.
since
It is
;
;
;
rate certain that copies exist of the Pancha-tantra written
in Sanskrit verse.
Thence they may have been translated
into prose for the instruction and amusement of those to
whom the poetic language was not familiar.
The five principal fables, together with the great number
of minor tales interwoven in them, form a volume of con-
siderable size.
It is not surprising that such a work should have an
extensive popularity
DUBOIS
among a
Q
people like the Hindus, prone