Panchatantra

The Panchatantra meaning the five treatises is a collection of stories involving various animals and birds in Sanskrit language, being arranged in the form of a story.  It was written around 200 BCE – 300 CE.  The author is not known, but it has been attributed to Vishnusharma in some contexts and to Vasubhaga in others, both of which may be pen names.  It is classical literature in a Hindu text, and is based on older oral traditions with "animal fables".

It is the most frequently translated literary product of India. And these stories are among the most widely known in the world, known by various names in varied cultures of the world. There is a version of Panchatantra in nearly every major language of India, and in addition, there are 200 versions of the text in more than 50 languages around the world.  One version of it reached Europe in the 11th century.

Sanket read in class 6 in Convent school in the city. His class had around 60 students with Usha madam as his class teacher.

Now the final exams were round the corner. So Usha madam wanted to teach the students about the importance of studying daily by recreating Panchatantra stories.

She said, there were two friends named Ganesh and Arihant. Ganesh used to study daily and finish his homework everyday.

While Arihant was lazy and seldom studied daily. Neither he did his homework nor finished his daily studies. But he had good retentive power and used to get good marks in exams.

One day, there was an altercation between the two for some petty matter. It was decided that the one who would score higher marks amongst the two, would be declared the winner.

This thing was spread across the whole class through word of mouth. Now it became a prestige issue for both of them.

Arihant, as usual, was complacent and waited for the last moment to study. He wasted his time in idle talk and watching films.

Ganesh, on the other hand, studied diligently day and night.

Finally, the exams started.

Both of them fared well. However, when the results were out, Ganesh scored 2% more marks than Arihant, who nevertheless scored an impressive 89%.

So. . . . What do you learn from this story? asked Usha madam.

Sanket raised his hand along with others to answer. When given a chance to speak, he said that slow and steady wins the race. If Arihant would not have become complacent like the rabbit in the Panchatantra tale of 'The race between tortoise and rabbit' and studied even one hour daily, he would have easily scored more marks than Ganesh, as he was very intelligent. Ganesh on the other hand, knew his shortcomings and worked hard day and night, and finally succeeded.

Usha madam was satisfied with this answer and wished best of luck to all the students for their upcoming examinations!