Stories from Panchatantra

Title

en_US Stories from Panchatantra

Description

en_US 1987 reprinting

Shivkumar

Creator

en_US Shivkumar, K. See all items with this value

Contributor

en_US Vyas, Anil

Date

2020-01-23T17:39:21Z

2019-04

en_US 1993

Date Available

2020-01-23T17:39:21Z

Date Issued

en_US 1979

Abstract

en_US A 1987 printing of this book is already in the collection, bought 21 years ago! This copy differs in several particulars besides the date of printing. The cover has not only the CBT seal but also "A CBT PUBLICATION." The price on the back cover has gone up from 50 to 75 Rupees. The verso of the title-page includes the same years of reprinting – "1981, 1984, 1986, 1987" – but adds also "1989, 1991, 1992, 1993." It no longer has the CBT seal. As I wrote there, this large-format children's book offers some twenty-eight well-told stories with a variety of multi-colored and two-colored illustrations. The blue duochrome illustrations tend to be poorly aligned in this copy. Good examples of the misalignment come in "The Crows and the Black Snake" (32). The story versions and the illustrations follow the patterns set in the series "Stories from Panchatantra" from Children's Book Trust. The stories even follow in exactly the same order as they do in the three (of five?) of these booklets that I have. The text of "The King's Choice" (174), is not the same verbatim as Shivkumar's text in his stand-alone booklet in 1971, but it follows the same story line. (Note that this 1971 "The King's Choice" by Parents' Magazine Press acknowledges Children's Book Trust's copyright on the text.) Thus this version, like the 1971 publication, brings a happy ending to the sad story of the camel's self-sacrifice. The king stops the crow, fox, and leopard from pouncing on the camel just after he has offered himself. Instead, King Lion announces that he will eat all four in the order in which they have offered themselves. When the other three flee, the lion offers the camel his lifelong friendship. Among the helpful illustrations in this book is that of the crocodile weeping underwater (15). The art has a slightly psychedelic cast and coloration. Because I am well acquainted with Kalilah and Dimna, my eye falls here on the stories that are not included there. Thus I enjoy particularly "The Musical Donkey" (38), "The Girl Who Married a Snake" (53), "The Lion-Makers" (78), "The Jackal Who Killed No Elephants" (82), "A Wise Old Bird" (143), and "The Thief's Sacrifice" (150). Here it is an iron beam that one friend leaves with another (59); it is all he has left after raising cash for his travels. And here the crow carries the mouse on his back in "The Four Friends" (121). In "The Brahmin and the Goat" (137), the three robbers claim that they see different animals on the Brahmin's shoulders: a dog, a dead calf, and a donkey.

Identifier

en_US 11883 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/125588

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Children's Book Trust

en_US New Delhi, India

Subject

en_US PK3741.P3S5 1979 See all items with this value

Panchatantra See all items with this value

en_US Title Page Scanned See all items with this value