First appearing in Sanskrit nearly 2,000 years ago, TheTales of Bidpai, with their slyly profound grasp of human nature at its best--and more often at its worst--have been translated through the centuries from Ethiopia to China. Incidents from the tales can be identified in Buddhist shrines built before 200 BC, and in the fables of Aesop, La Fontaine and Uncle Remus. Ramsay Wood brings us a racy, contemporary English translation--the first since 1888. Margaret Kilrenny's intricate line drawings bring the stories to life.

Kalila and Dimna: Selected Fables of Bidpai, Retold by Ramsay Wood

Literature & Fiction

Ramsay Wood

World Literature

Alfred.A. Knopf

A Cat May Look at a King & 8 other stories to tell your cat

Octagon Press

New renderings of classic Indian folk epics from the 2000-year-old Fables of Bidpai.
 • These timeless, charming, and humorous tales have survived through the centuries and have resurfaced in most of our popular moral fables.
 • These tales have received the highest praise from authors of some of the world's finest literature. 
 The tales of Kalila and Dimna from the Fables of Bidpai originated almost 2000 years ago in a Sanskrit collection of animal stories called the Panchatantra. These charming and humorous stories have found their way in one form or another into the folklore of every major culture and tradition. They have influenced all our fables from Aesop to La Fontaine, including Uncle Remus, The Arabian Nights, and The Canterbury Tales. 
Here the first two books of the Panchatantra's five are brilliantly rendered by Ramsay Wood in a captivating, contemporary version that can be read on many levels. These stories within stories ostensibly constitute a handbook for rulers, but in their slyly profound grasp of human nature they are clearly meant as helpful guidance for us all. These are tales that will be treasured by young and old alike. In addition, the tales are graced with Margaret Kilrenny's beautiful illustrations based on paintings in rare Arabic manuscripts.

Tales of Kalila and Dimna: Classic Fables from India

Inner Traditions

Kalila and Dimna or The Panchatantra (also known in Europe since 1483 as The Fables of Bidpai) is a multi-layered, inter-connected and variable arrangement of animal stories, with one story leading into another, sometimes three or four deep. These arrangements have contributed to world literature for over 2000 years, migrating across ancient cultures in a multitude of written and oral formats. All our beast fables from Aesop and the Buddhist Jataka Tales through La Fontaine to Uncle Remus owe this strange, shape-shifting 'book' a huge debt. In its original Arabic format, Kalila and Dimna (The Panchatantra being its Sanskrit precursor), ostensibly constitutes a handbook for rulers, a so-called 'Mirror for Princes' illustrating indirectly, through a cascade of teaching stories and verse, how to (and how not to!) run the kingdom of your life. In their slyly profound grasp of human nature at its best (and worst!) these animal fables, usually avoiding any moralistic human criticism, serve up digestible sage counsel for us all. Based on his collation of scholarly translations from key Sanskrit, Syriac, Arabic and Persian texts, as well as the 1570 English rendition by Sir Thomas North, this is the first uncompromisingly modern re-telling in either the East or West for over 400 years. In Ramsay Wood's version the profound meanings behind these ancient fables shine forth as he captures a great world classic, making it fresh, relevant, fascinating and hugely readable. His second volume of fables from Kalila and Dimna, picks up where the first, Fables of Friendship and Betrayal, left off - covering deceit, political skullduggery, murder, enemies, deadly monsters, kings, bees, princesses, monkeys, lions, crocodiles and how we all live and die together in peace or conflict. This is a book full of outrageously behaved animals and humans doing the most delightfully awful (yet sometimes gentle) things to each other. These are joyous, sad, amusing and sometimes brutal stories; their function being to educate both king and commoner alike in the ways of the world, the harsh realities that can often lurk beneath the surface of our cozy, everyday subjectivity.

KALILA AND DIMNA, Vol. 2: — Fables of Conflict and Intrigue from the Panchatantra, Jatakas, Bidpai, Kalila and Dimnah and Lights of Canopus

Medina Publishing

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