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Title
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en_US
Ancient Indian Fables and Stories, Being a Selection from the Panchatantra
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en_US
The Wisdom of the East Series
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Description
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en_US
This is a hardbound book (hard cover)
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en_US
Stanley Rice
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Creator
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en_US
Rice, Stanley
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Date
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2016-01-25T19:03:20Z
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en_US
1998-09
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en_US
1924
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Date Available
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2016-01-25T19:03:20Z
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Date Issued
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en_US
1924
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Abstract
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en_US
The first of the five tantras here covers about half of the book. It tells the story of Karataka and Damanaka. In this version, these two jackals work in unison and are thoroughly scoundrels! They have been thrown out of court in disgrace. The lion hears the bull and sends for them. They tell the lion king that the bull is the charger of Siva sent to devour every animal (40). They tell corresponding lies to the patient and personable bull. At the time of their final betrayal, however, they provoke only the lion. A violent rainstorm drives the bull to the lion's cave, where he is surprised by the lion's attack. There are plenty of sub-stories that are new to me. One of them is the early story of the pond with a hole (24). The frustrated king who had dug the pond listened to the advice given by an anchorite, namely, that an anchorite must be sacrificed. So he sacrificed the anchorite who had given him that advice! By luck, the anchorite's dead body sealed up the hole. Here it is a jackal that induces the lion to jump into the well to attack the supposed adversary that is really his own reflection (54). Damanaka, not the bull, tells the sad story of the camel betrayed by the lion's counselors (59). The story here does not include an offer of self-sacrifice from the camel; rather the three others mention him first and offer themselves as back-up. The lion cannot bear his hunger and so kills the camel and feeds on him, with the jackal, crow, and dog feasting on the dead camel later. TT here involves a tortoise and eagles, not geese (63). A jackal deliberately baits the tortoise into answering. But then he cannot eat the tortoise because of her hard shell. She suggests that he take her to a neighboring pond to soften her up. He holds on with one paw while she is in the water. She claims that she is now soft everywhere but where his paw is, and so he removes the paw, and the tortoise is immediately gone! The second tantra on friendship is told in cursory and unsatisfactory fashion. The third tantra on the war between the owls and the crows is more fully developed. In the fourth tantra, it is the monkey's liver, not heart, that the crocodile's wife demands. This version cleverly gets the monkey to suggest the trip to the crocodile's home, so that the crocodile can both enjoy his friend and attend to his wife. Otherwise the story does not hang together very well. After significant travel, the monkey asks to be let off on the shore. He never does use the I left my liver at home ploy--since he never hears that a monkey's liver is what is supposedly needed. The fifth tantra on rash action includes the funny story of the barber who watches a man--under divine inspiration--kill three beggars, whose bodies promptly turn into copper pots full of gold and jewels. The barber kills the first beggar he can find and chases after the next two, but there is no transformation, and the barber is executed (120). This version omits the many quoted verses one usually finds in the Panchatantra and so is, I believe, easier to read for many of us.
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Identifier
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en_US
4269 (Access ID)
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Language
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en_US
eng
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Publisher
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en_US
E.P. Dutton and company
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en_US
New York
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Subject
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en_US
PK3741.P3 E5 1924b
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en_US
Panchatantra
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en_US
Title Page Scanned
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Type
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en_US
Book, Whole