Congress party leader and noted philosopher Pandit Jayaram Ramesh is rewriting the Panchatantra, an ancient Indian collection of animal fables. The original Sanskrit work was composed by Pandit Vishnu Sharma to instill some wisdom into the head of a foolish prince. Pandit Ramesh claims that his version of the Panchtantra is a contemporary take on the ancient epic, but his motives remain the same, to instill some sense into the head of a foolish prince. The congress version of the epic consists of three books. Mitra-bheda, The Separation of Friends In the first book, a friendship arises between the lion Narendraka, the king of the forest in Gujarat, and Nitishak a bull from Bihar. Manishak and Digvijayak are two vultures that are retainers to the Hyena queen. They break up the friendship between the lion and the bull out of jealousy. Mitra-samprāpti, The Gaining of Friends Seeing the rift between the Lion and the Bull, a crow decides to take advantage of the situation and befriend the rat, the turtle and the bullfrog. Together, they decide to form the third front. Labdhapraṇāśam, Loss of Gains The story is about an arrogant ageing elephant, who is so drunk with power that he fails to notice that the other animals in the jungle are quite fed up with his rule. The other animals depute a clever jackal to teach the elephant a lesson. The jackal quietly and nimbly steals the elephant’s food from right in front of his eyes, and the elephant can do nothing, except trumpet in impotent rage. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 15:10:44 +0000
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