Another Story

In what can wisdom not prevail?
In what can resolution fail?
What cannot flattery subdue?
What cannot enterprise put through?

So how exactly did the Panchatantra migrate to the Middle East and morph into Kalila and Dimna?

Once Upon A Time, there was a great king named Khosrau (the namesake of one of our actors!) who reigned over the territory known as the Sassanid Empire. The Sassanid Empire was a large territory that encompassed what is now Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and parts of Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Syria, and Pakistan. (Dark green area on map to right)

One day, around 570 CE, Khosrau’s trusted vizier named Borzuy, a statesman and physician of the Sassanid Empire, came to the king to ask permission to undertake a journey to Hindustan (now called India). Borzuy had read of a mountain herb—mritasanjeevani—in Hindustan that, when sprinkled over a corpse, restored life to that which is dead. Khosrau granted permission, equipped his vizier for the journey, and sent with him a note to the Hindustani Raj requesting him to furnish any help Borzuy may need.

Borzuy was received in Hindustan with great honor and was given all the assistance the kingdom could offer. However, when he climbed the mountain and procured the herb, he found that it possessed no necromantic properties. Ashamed at the prospect of returning home in defeat, Borzuy consulted the physicians of the Raj’s kingdom. The physicians could offer the vizier little help, but they all agreed that Borzuy should consult a great sage they knew of who surpassed all of them in years, speech, and wisdom.

When Borzuy found the sage and related his story, he was surprised to hear that the sage had undertaken the same quest long ago. He also had been disappointed by mritasanjeevani’s ability to raise the dead until he realized the real significance of the journey he had undertaken. The sage advised Borzuy to think of the herb as one who seeks knowledge, the mountain as that same knowledge that is so difficult to obtain, and the dead as one without knowledge since without learning, one is lifeless. He then urged Borzuy to consult the Raj’s treasury, where he will find a book called the Panchatantra. When people become weary of their ignorance, the Panchatantra is their mritasanjeevani, and knowledge is the mountain they must climb.

Borzuy was overjoyed by this discovery, and hurried back to the Raj to request permission to borrow the Panchatantra. As dear as the book was to the king, he could not permit Borzuy to remove it from the kingdom, but he granted the noble vizier as much time with it as he desired. Borzuy translated the stories into Pahlavi—an ancient Persian language—and renamed the book Kalile va Demne.