Draws eight stories from well-known collections of Indian folktales--Hitopadesha tales, Jataka tales, and Panchantra tales--and presents them with cartoon-like illustrations.
Composed between 800 and 950 AD, Narayana's Hitopadesa is one of the best-known of all works in Sanskrit literature. A fascinating collection of fables, maxims and sayings in verse, it combines a wide variety of writings from earlier authors in one volume - a 'garden of pleasing stories' created to provide guidance, wisdom and political advice to the reader. With elegance and great humour, Narayana weaves a framework for the classic tales, here narrated by animals who quote from and reflect on stories from the Pancatantra and other traditional sources. At once an anthology of folk wisdom and an original and satirical work in its own right, the Hitopadesa has been deeply admired and widely read for more than a thousand years for its humorous and profound reflections on human lives, loves, follies and philosophies.
First recorded 1500 years ago, but taking its origins from a far earlier oral tradition, the Pancatantra is ascribed by legend to the celebrated, half-mythical teacher Visnu Sarma. Asked by a great king to awaken the dulled intelligence of his three idle sons, the aging Sarma is said to have composed the great work as a series of entertaining and edifying fables narrated by a wide range of humans and animals, and together intended to provide the young princes with vital guidance for life. Since first leaving India before AD 570, the Pancatantra has been widely translated and has influenced a cast number of works in India, the Arab world and Europe, including the Arabian Nights, the Canterbury Tales and the Fables of La Fontaine. Enduring and profound, it is among the earliest and most popular of all books of fables.
The Hitopadesha are fables that were written in the 12th century AD. These tales of wisdom were written in the Sanskrit language and are part of India’s great cultural heritage. Each story aims to educate young minds about life, morals and values, so that they may become responsible adults. This special collection is sure to delight children with its easy language, colourful illustrations and engaging stories. Read about the donkey who tried to be a tiger, about the crow who stole curd, a lion who hired a cat to guard him and how the doves and their king flew off with a net to escape from a hunter.
Includes the following titles: The Jackal and the War Drum, The Brahmin and the Goat, How the Jackal ate the Elephant, Crows and Owls , The Dullard and other Stories
Hitopadesha is a collection of ancient Sanskrit fables written by Narayana Pandit. It is dated around 11th or 12th 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; not to succumb to rumour-mongers; to mind one's own business; and not to be greedy.
All Time Favourites for Children celebrates Ruskin Bond's writing with stories that are perennially loved and can now be enjoyed in a single collectible volume. Curated and selected by India's most loved writer, this collection brings some of the evocative episodes from Ruskin's life, iconic Rusty, eccentric Uncle Ken, ubiquitous grandmother, and many other charming, endearing characters in a single volume while also introducing us to a smattering of new ones that are sure to be firm favourites with young readers. Heart-warming, funny and spirited, this is a must-have on every bookshelf!