Panchatantra Stories - Moral stories for Kids

This app is a collection of famous Panchatantra stories.

The Panchatantra is a compilation of inter-woven series of tales in prose and poetry, mostly animal fables. It was compiled in Sanskrit (Hindu) and Pali (Bhuddhist). The compilation, attributed to Pandit Vishnu Sharma, is considered by most scholars to be dated around 3rd century BCE, and to be based on older oral civilization. Through cross-border mutations, adaptations and translations, the Panchatantra remains the most popular work of literature, especially amongst storytellers.

Tales of this ancient Indian work, the original texts of which is now long lost, portray the origins of the subcontinent's language and primitive lifestyle - apart from its objectives, according to its own narrative, to illustrate the primary Hindu principles of nïti - the wise conduct of life.

The Panchatantra consists of 5 parts, apart from a brief introductory narrative. Each of the five parts revolve around a frame story, which further contain "emboxed" stories, sometime three to four levels deep.

Once upon a time, sitting by the fireside, man told his first story, and built the foundations of his own rule over his world. Stories gave the world shape. They established orders and challenged them, showed man the road to the future and helped him unravel the labyrinths of the past.

Through stories, man trapped the world around him, and bent it to his will. Man knew ... stories were what inspired him, made him stronger, better, wiser. Stories were what made man realize that there was more to life than mere existence. There was something to look up to, something to aim for, somewhere to go ..

The Panchatantra is a unique contribution of Ancient India to the world, particularly to the world literature, that has equally delighted the young and the old, educated and uneducated, rich and poor, high and low - for over two thousand years. It has triumphed over the greatest obstacles of language, custom and religion, and made an unparalled progress from its native land to all the civilized parts of the globe - as it continues to delight everyone to this very day.

This Indian collection of fables, reveals the basic knowledge of wisdom that makes one's life "richer, happier, and fuller". Because of its elegant style in which it packages the wisdom of the ages, it has the most profound influence on the world literature - amongst all works of Indian literature.

Panchatantra has served as a source, directly or indirectly, for many works of modern literature, which can be traced to Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, Giovanni Boccaccio and even William Shakspeare's works. In 1800 AD, Jonathan Scott epitomized the Bengal manuscript as 'Tales, Anecdotes and Letters'. Most people in modern world may not have heard of the Panchatantra. But anyone with any claim to literary education would be familiar to commonly used titles like 'Fables of Bidpai' or the 'Tales of Kalila and Dimna' - which are merely translations or adaptations of Panchatantra. The fact that even before 1888, there were at least 20 English translations of this great Eastern Classic - makes one wonder how widely circulated this book was. As a matter of fact, no other book, other than the Bible, have ever enjoyed such intensive worldwide circulation.