Hitopadesha: Six Fables of Good Counsel
Six famous animal fables from the Hitopadesha, the Sanskrit "Book of Good Counsels" drawn from the Panchatantra: the greedy tiger, the meddling monkey, the clever old hare, the dyed jackal, the talkative tortoise and the crane who tricked the fish. By Narayana (c. 900), translated by Edwin Arnold. A public-domain classic, from The Book of Good Counsels.
🎧 New: every story can be read aloud. Tap Listen to try it.
हिन्दी में पढ़ेंहितोपदेश की छह कथाएँ · वही कहानी How it begins "Thus," replied Speckle-neck: "I was pecking about one day in the Deccan forest, and saw an old tiger sitting newly bathed on the bank of a pool, like a Brahman, and with holy kuskus-grass in his paws.'Ho! ho! ye travellers,' he kept calling out, 'take this golden bangle!' Keep reading →About this story
Six famous animal fables from the Hitopadesha, the Sanskrit ‘Book of Good Counsels’, drawn from the Panchatantra: the greedy tiger, the meddling monkey, the clever old hare, the dyed jackal, the talkative tortoise and the crane who tricked the fish. Each has a clear moral.
The Hitopadesha was written by Narayana around the 9th or 10th century, as a book of advice for young princes. This English version is by Edwin Arnold, the Victorian poet, from 1861. Many of its stories are the same ones that appear in the Panchatantra and, later, in La Fontaine.
- Themes
- Cunning and good counsel, friendship, how to deal with enemies
- Good for
- Short fables for reading aloud
- Worth noticing
- The proverb that sits at the end of each fable, and whether you agree.