ACK-003:Hitopadesha

3rd ACK in the series is presented hereby.'Hitopadesha' or 'sermons for welfare' is a collection of wise tales narrated using animals as symbols,'Jatak Kathayein','Panchtantra' and 'Hitopdesha' were among my favorites during childhood and i was fascinated by reading the stories in which animals were central characters,my little mind was able to grasp very quickly the moral given through these stories.
Choosing the medium of animals for delivering the moral of story to children is indeed a very impressive and successful idea.Our indigenous literature and books are full of wisdom but we are reluctant to read and harness from them.
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Hitopadesha (Good Counsel) is an 11-12th century Sanskrit collection of stories in four chapters instead of five in the Panchatantra on which it is based. Each chapter contains a string of stories, one emerging from the other, with each designed to render counsel on ethical worldly-wise conduct. The characters are living beings including humans and animals in the wild. The latter too are endowed with the reason and emotions of human beings. Thereby they come to represent types of human nature and behavior and one can draw morals from the stories.
In this collection, a tiger finds a gold bangle with which he allures a traveler to cross the river; stuck in mire, the greedy man falls easy prey to the tiger.In another story, a jackal feigns friendship with a deer who despite warnings from a wise crow joins the jackal and meets with a tragedy. An old blind vulture is offered shelter by birds in the hollow of a tree.He protects their fledglings. A cat pleads for living with them and the vulture agrees. The cat finishes the fledglings one by one and goes away. The birds suspecting the vulture kill him. Moral: Do not give shelter to the unknown. This collection is treasure house of such stories.

[Introduction:courtesy TPH]

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