Panchatantra - Five Strategies: Collection of animal fables complied before AD 500

PANCHA TANTRA, or Five Strategies, is an extensive collection of early fables or apologues to teach moral values. This was also known as the COLLECTION OF ANIMAL FABLES OF BIDPAI (or PILPAY), the name given in SANSKRIT for Vidya-pati, meaning CHIEF SCHOLAR's. "Book of Kalilah and Dimna," from the two jackals in the first story, became the channel through which a knowledge of the fables was transmitted to Europe. A converted JEW, THE WANDERING Jew, in his Directorium vitae humanae (first published in 1480), and in that form became widely known. Since then the fables have been translated into nearly every European tongue. There are also versions of them in the modern Persian, Malay, Mongol and Afghan languages.