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The Three Fishes

There were three big fishes living in a lake who were very close friends. All three of them were very different from one another. The first one believed in fate. He thought things cannot be changed and what had to happen will happen no matter what. The second one was intelligent. He thought he knew how to solve a problem if he had one, with his intelligence. The third one was the wise one. It thought long and hard before acting.

So one day, the wise fish was happily playing around in the water, when it over heard a fishermen talking to another. "Look at that one, what a big fish... This lake is full of big fishes like this one. Let us come tomorrow and catch them."

It hurriedly swam to it's friends to tell the news. "Let us get out of this lake before those fishermen come back. A canal I know can take us to another lake," the wise one said.

The intelligent fish said, " I know what to do if the fishermen come and catch me."

The fish which believed in fate said, "Whatever to happen will happen, I was born in this lake and I am not going to leave it."

The wise fish didn't want to risk its life, so he took the canal and went to another lake.

The fishermen came back the next morning and cast their net. The rest of the two friends were caught in it along with many other fishes.

The intelligent fish thought of a way to escape, it acted as if it were dead. The fishermen threw him along with other dead fish back into the lake. But the other fish which believed in fate was still jumping in the net and the fishermen struck him dead.

Story moral: Intelligence wins over might.

The mongoose and the farmer's wife

Long time ago there lived a farmer and his wife. They had a new born son. The farmer's wife wanted to have a pet animal to protect the child which would also be a companion to the child. They had a talk and decided upon a mongoose. So they brought a mongoose and started rearing it.

A couple of months later, one day the farmer and his wife wanted to go out of the house leaving the child at home. The farmer thought that the mongoose would take care of the child while they were away. So they left the mongoose and the child at home and went out.

The farmer's wife returned earlier and on returning home found that the mouth of the mongoose was stained with blood and she immediately inferred that the mongoose had killed the child. In anger she threw a box on the mongoose and the mongoose was hurt badly. She then rushed inside to see what happened to the child. She was surprised to find a dead snake lying in the room. She could guess that that the mongoose had saved the child's life by killing the snake. Realizing the mistake she went out of the room only to find the mongoose dead on the floor. She cried out load at her hasty action.

Story moral: Don't act in haste. Think and act.

The Sparrow and the elephant

Long time ago there lived a sparrow with her husband on a tree. She had built a nice nest and laid her eggs in the nest. One morning, a wild elephant with spring fever feeling came to the tree in search of shade and in a rage broke the branch of the tree on which the nest was residing. Unluckily all the sparrow eggs were lost though both parents were saved. The she-sparrow was deep in sorrow.

Seeing her sorrow, the woodpecker bird, a friend of hers offered her consolation that she would think of a way of killing the elephant. Then she went to her friend the black fly, who in turn went to the counselor frog for advice. The frog then devised a scheme for killing the elephant. He asked the black fly to buzz in the ears of the elephant, so that the elephant would be thrilled to listen to the music of the black fly and close its eyes. Then she asked the woodpecker to pluck his eyes. She herself would be on the edge of a pit and would croak misleading the elephant to think that it is a pond.

The next day at noon the three carried out the plan and the elephant was killed when he fell flat into a pit after being blinded by the woodpecker when he closed his eyes in response to the black fly. So the revenge was taken with collective wit of all three animals.

Story moral: Intelligence wins over might.

Tales of Tenali Ramakrishna

Tenali Ramakrishna, popularly known as Tenali Rama, was a court-poet of Krishnadeva Raya of the Vijayanagara empire. He was known for his wit and impressive poetry written in the Telugu language. Ramakrishna was called a vikata kavi and he was one of the Ashtadiggajas of the Vijayanagara court. He was also a great scholar of several languages that included Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada.

Ramakrishna was born in a village in Andhra State during the early part of the sixteenth century. He lost his father when he was very young. He was a very carefree child. From morning till night he was in the company of naughty boys. One day, Ramakrishna met a sadhu who advised him to pray Mother Kali. Ramakrishna did as advised and as soon as he completed the repetition of the mantra eleven crore and eleven times, Mother Kalika appeared. She had a thousand faces and looked terrifying. On seeing the Goddess Ramakrishna touched her feet and then burst into laughter. This aroused Kalika Devi's curiosity. She ordered him to explain what made him laugh. "Divine Mother! When we catch cold, we feel that two hands are insufficient to wipe our only nose. If, you catch cold will your two hands be enough to wipe your thousand noses? This thought made me laugh. Forgive me, I have been impudent." So saying, Ramakrishna again fell at her feet and stood up. The smile and the sense of humor of the boy pleased Kalika Devi. She blessed him to attain fame as a great jester and make people laugh. So he mastered all learnings and became famous as the great humorist, the comic poet Ramakrishna. This is a popular story about Tenali Ramakrishna. Following are some of the comic incidents which took place in the Vijayanagara empire.

The Dove King

Once upon a time, there was a flock of doves that flew in search of food led by their king. One day, they found some rice scattered beneath a banyan tree. So all the doves landed and began to eat.
Suddenly a net fell over them and they were all trapped. They saw a hunter approaching them carrying a huge club. The doves desperately fluttered their wings trying to get out, but to no avail.

The king got an idea. He advised all the doves to fly up together carrying the net with them. He said that there was strength in unity. So each dove picked up a portion of the net and together they flew off carrying the net with them. The hunter looked up in astonishment. He tried to follow them, but they were flying high over hills and valleys. They flew to a hill near a city of temples where there lived a mouse who could help them. He was a faithful friend of the dove king.

When the mouse heard the loud noise of their approach, he went into hiding. The dove king gently called out to him and then the mouse was happy to see him. The dove king explained that they had been caught in a trap and needed the mouse's help to chew the net with his teeth and set them free. The mouse agreed saying that he would set the king free first. The king insisted that he first free his subjects and the king last. The mouse understood the king’s feelings and compiled with his wishes. He began to cut the net and one by one all the doves were freed including the dove king.
They all thanked the mouse and flew away together united in their strength.

Panchatantra

King Amarashakti was the ruler of Mahilaropya Kingdom. He had 3 sons, namely Bahushakti, Ugrashakti and Anantashakti. The king had a deep worry. All the three princes were fools.
One day the king called all his ministers and courtiers for consultation. One minister suggested to appoint Acharya Vishnusharma as the official instructor for the princes. Vishnusharma was known to be a genius in all the shastras and the theory of politics and diplomacy.
Acting on the suggestion, the king requested Acharya Vishnusharma to accept the three princess as his students and teach them the ways of the world. Vishnusharma, however, realised that it was more difficult than he had thought to teach his new students through conventional means.
Therefore he decided to pass on wisdom to them in the form of stories. This collection, that has attained fame over centuries, is called Panchatantra. Pancha means five and tantra means strategies or principles.After listening and working on these stories, all the three princes became completely educated in politics and became able administrators.

Panchatantra, published in Sanskrit, in India, is perhaps the oldest of the children's stories written over 2,500 years ago. The author, Vishnu Sharma, used animal characters to convey certain morals.The collection of stories in Panchatantra are a real guide for parents to help them in raising their children and teaching them the moral values in human life. 
Here we present few selected stories from Panchatantra. Every story is accompanied by a moral.