Hitopadesha: How Friends are Parted and other Stories

by Anant Pai

Hitopadesha is a collection of ancient Sanskrit fables written by Narayana Pandit. It is dated around 11th or 12 th century AD. The four stories chosen in this group have simple moral tales to tell. Lions, jackals, monkeys, cats, dogs and donkeys are protagonists who teach common sense lessons in how to judge for oneself; how not to succumb to rumourmongers; how to mind one's own business and how not to be greedy.

Genres: Comics

32 pages, Paperback

Published December 31, 2003

About the author

Anant Pai popularly known as Uncle Pai, was an Indian educationalist and creator of Indian comics, in particular the Amar Chitra Katha series in 1967, along with the India Book House publishers, and which retold traditional Indian folk tales, mythological stories, and biographies of historical characters. In 1980, he launched Tinkle, a children's anthology, which was started under Rang Rekha Features, India's first comic and cartoon syndicate, that lasted till 1998, with him as the Managing Director.

Today, Amar Chitra Katha sells about three million comic books a year, in English and more than 20 Indian languages, and has sold about 100 million copies since it inception in 1967 by Anant Pai, and in 2007 was taken over by ACK Media.

Reviews

[Anantha Narayanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitopadesha, contains good moral stories based on India. Only ACK has addressed the need for home-grown stories in a popular way.

The regional languages in which ACK was published should be revised and more books should be made available.

[Satyajeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hitopadesha is a collection of fables in Sanskrit. This work, attributed to Narayana ( 11th or 12th century A D ), is based on the more famous Panchatantra which was written by Vishnu Sharma more than a thousand years earlier.
Although Narayan is indebted to Vishnu Sharama for his plots, he has introduced 18 stories which are not to be found in the original.

Narayan has divided his work into four sections : Mitralabha ( gaining friends ) , Suhrudbheda ( Causing Dissension between friends ) , Vigraha ( Separation )and Sandhi ( Union ). The tales in this issue are taken from the " Suhrudbheda "