Hitopadesha: Choice of Friends

by Kamala Chandrakant (Story), Anant Pai (Editor), Jeffrey Fowler (Illustrator)

Hitopadesha (Good Counsel) is an 11-12th century Sanskrit collection of stories in four chapters instead of five in the Panchatantra on which it is based. Each chapter contains a string of stories, one emerging from the other, with each designed to render counsel on ethical worldly-wise conduct. The characters are living beings including humans and animals in the wild. The latter too are endowed with the reason and emotions of human beings. Thereby they come to represent types of human nature and behavior and one can draw morals from the stories.

In this collection, a tiger finds a gold bangle with which he allures a traveler to cross the river; stuck in mire, the greedy man falls easy prey to the tiger. In another story, a jackal feigns friendship with a deer who despite warnings from a wise crow joins the jackal and meets with a tragedy. An old blind vulture is offered shelter by birds in the hollow of a tree. He protects their fledglings. A cat pleads for living with them and the vulture agrees. The cat finishes the fledglings one by one and goes away. The birds suspecting the vulture kill him. Moral: Do not give shelter to the unknown.

This collection is treasure house of such stories.

Genres: Comics, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Archit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hitopdesha consists of stories with moral values which is responsible for the good qualities in not only children but also adults. In India, here or there, most of the people, read some stories of Hitopdesha.

Enriched with knowledge and moral attributes, Hitopdesha tops my reading list.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales that reinforce what your parents always tell you - be careful who you make your friend. All cultures have tales warning what can happen if you make the wrong friends; how you can find yourself in a situation that places you in jeopardy in some way. This book looks at what happens when you do not listen to mom and dad.

[Ravi Kumar Dandapani]

interesting morals

[Anjalica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it great lessons