First Published in 1965, The Panchatantra is a reprint of Franklin Edgerton’s translation, first published in volume two of Panchatantra Reconstructed (1924), with some minor alterations. Probably no other work of Hindu literature has played so important a part in the literature of the world as the Sanskrit story collection called the Panchatantra. The title means ‘the five books’, and most of the older versions and translations keep this division, although the last two books are much shorter than the first three. All the ‘books’ contain at least one story, and usually more, which are ‘emboxed’ in the main story, called the ‘frame-story’. The original Sanskrit text is composed in a mixture of prose and stanzas of verse. The stories proper are told almost wholly in prose. This translation work is an important book for scholars and students of South Asian literature and Sanskrit studies.

The Pañcatantra is the most famous collection of fables in India and was one of the earliest Indian books to be translated into Western languages. It teaches the principles of good government and public policy through the medium of animal stories, providing a window onto ancient Indian society. This new translation vividly reveals the story-telling powers of the original author, while detailed notes illuminate aspects of ancient Indian society and religion to the non-specialist reader.