of these, in verse, which still retains its charm; and the 

 great gatherings of Indian tales and fables are as attractive 

 to-day as they were centuries ago. Of these, three collec- 

 tions claim special mention. 'J'he Katha-sarit-sagara, or 

 ocean stream of fable, which is the largest; the Pancha- 

 tantra, the pentateuch of fables, which is the oldest; and 

 the Hitopadesa,, the book of friendly advice, which is the 

 collection best known to English readers. 



The Katha-sarit-sagara was compiled in the latter half 

 of the eleventh century by Somadeva of Kashmir. Some 

 of its st<aies show trace® of Buddhist origin, though the 

 compiler was a Brahmin, who wrote to please Queen 

 Surj^avati, a patroness of Brahmins, and who filled his 

 stories viith miracles done by' Brahmin ascetics through 

 virtue of their sanctity. He was seized with the fancy that 

 his book should be the receptacle of all stories, as the 

 ocean is of all rivers; hence its quaint name, "Ocean of 

 Story Streams." And, in itxct, if not boundless as it was 

 meant to be, it runs to the intolerable length of six -score 

 chapters, nearly double the length of the Iliad and Odyssy 

 put together. Dr. Brockhaus^ issued the collection in San- 

 skrit text and German translation,, or summary, in 1889. 

 H. H. Wilson, also as far back as 1824, gave an analysis 

 of its early chapters in the Calcutta magazine; and an 

 English translation by C. H. Tawney was published in 

 1880 by the Asiatic Sociey. 



Both the Panchatantra and Hitopadesa are chiefly 

 apologuei3 — that is, fables in which dumb beasts have been 

 made to t^lk and act like men, to enforce some moral truth. 

 The aim of both books is the same, namely, tuition of that 

 branch of social ethics called by the Hindus "Niti," or 

 the rules of good conduct, with a special reference to the 

 deportment of princes. The Panchatantra, the larger book 

 of the two, contains more than eighty fables, while the 

 Hitopadesa has but forty-three, half of which, or more, are 

 taken frorn the larger book. It is also of later date, and its 



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