The Pentateuch is a world-famous collection of Indian tales, fables, short stories and parables. The inserted stories of “Panchatantra” (about 100 in different versions), which penetrated the literature and folklore of many peoples, are united by frame stories having one or another didactic setting
King Amarashakti had three stupid and lazy sons. To awaken their minds, the king called the sage Vishnusharman, and he undertook in six months to teach the princes the science of proper behavior. To this end, he composed five books, which, in turn, told his students.
Friends Disconnect
A certain merchant leaves Sanjivaku in the forest of a dying bull. The bull gradually grew stronger from spring water and lush grass, and soon its mighty roar began to frighten the king of forest animals, the lion Pingalaku. Pingalaki advisers jackals Damanaka and Karataka are looking for a bull and make an alliance between him and the lion. Over time, the friendship of Sanjivaki and Pingalaki becomes so strong and close that the king begins to neglect his former environment. Then the jackals left out of work quarrel with them. They slander the lion against the bull, accusing Sanjivak of planning to seize royal power, and the bull, in turn, is warned that Pingalaka wants to eat his meat.Deceived by jackals, Pingalaka and Sanjivaka attack each other, and the lion kills the bull.
Making friends
The pigeons fall into the net arranged by the hunter, but they manage to fly up with the net and fly to the hole of Hiranya’s mouse, which cuts the net and frees the pigeons. All this is seen by the raven of Laghupatanaka and, delighted with the intelligence and dexterity of the mouse, enters into friendship with her. In the meantime, a drought occurs in the country, and the raven, having planted Hiranya on its back, flies with it to the lake, where the mouse turtle Mantharaka lives. Soon, having escaped from the hunter, the doe of Chitrang joins them, and all four, sincerely attached to each other, get together write and spend time in wise conversations. Once, however, the doe became entangled in snares, and when Hiranya freed her, a slow tortoise fell into the hands of the hunter, who did not manage to hide with her friends. Then the doe pretends to be dead, the raven, so that the hunter does not have doubts about her death, pretends to peck out her eyes, but hardly having thrown the turtle in a hurry for easy prey, four friends run away and from now on live serene and happy.
About crows and owls
Crows live on a large banyan tree, and there are countless owls nearby in the mountain cave-fortress. Stronger and more cruel owls constantly kill ravens, and they gather for a council at which one of the ministers of the raven king named Sthirajivin suggests resorting to military trick. He portrays a quarrel with his king, after which the crows, having smeared his blood, are thrown at the foot of a tree.Owls accept Sthirajivin, allegedly wounded by his relatives, as a defector and settle in a nest at the entrance to the cave. Sthirajivin slowly fills his nest with tree branches, and then notifies the ravens that they can fly in and set fire to the nest with the cave. They do so and thus deal with their enemies who perish in the fire.
Loss of acquired
A palm tree grows near the sea, on which the monkey Ractamukha lives. She meets the dolphin Vikaralamukha, who swims daily to a tree and speaks friendly with a monkey. This causes the dolphin’s wife to be jealous, and she demands that the husband bring her monkey heart for lunch. No matter how hard it is for a dolphin, due to his weakness of character, he is forced to obey his wife's demand. To get the heart of a monkey, Vikaralamukha invites her to her home and swims with her on her back in the bottomless sea. Realizing that the monkey nowhere to go, he confesses to her in his plan. Preserving the presence of the spirit, Raktamukha exclaims: “What have you not told me before?” Then I would not leave my heart in the hollow of a tree. " The stupid dolphin returns to the shore, the monkey jumps on a palm tree and thereby saves his life.
Reckless actions
A certain hermit gives four poor brahmanas four lamps and promises that if they go to the Himalayan mountains, each of them will find a treasure where his lamp falls. At the first brahmana, the lamp falls on a treasure of copper, at the second - on a treasure of silver, at the third - on a treasure of gold, and he offers the fourth to stay with him and divide this gold equally.But he, in the hope that he will probably get diamonds more expensive than gold, goes further and soon meets a man on whose head a sharp wheel spins, staining him with blood. This wheel immediately jumps onto the head of the fourth brahmana, and now, as the stranger who has freed himself from suffering explains, it will remain on the brahman until one more greedy seeker of wealth arrives.
