Customer Reviews

Pancha Tantra - Five Wise Lessons: A Vivid Retelling if India's Most Famous Collection of Fables

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This is a fine collection of highly entertaining and educational stories from Ancient India. It is the most widely read Indian classic, translated into more than 50 languages. It has influenced The Arabian Nights, the Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and most notably in The Fables of La Fontaine. First told at least 1500 years ago by the sage Vishnu Sharma to three backward princes in an Indian king's court (who after hearing these tales became "as wise as the king of the gods"), its morals and messages are as relevant today as they were then.

Krishna Dharma tells the stories in his usual lucid style, throwing in a few poems here and there. It is illustrated with line drawings and should be easily handled by any free reading child and is a good read for any adult still young at heart -- particularly those wanting to hone up on a bit of worldly wisdom

I did not dislike this book but was wishing for a more complete translation. The basics of the tale are here but it is more a book for children or young adults. This I think was who the author intended the book for but this really is not stated when buying. If you have a younger child or teen then YES this book does offer some good moral tales. If your a adult and you are trying to study the classic Hindu text then I would look elsewhere. As for the author I have read some other of Dharma's works and they are very westernized versions. They keep your interest and you get the basics but he tends to either condense to much or pine to western style of thought. These are recommended for those just beginning there insights.

I read this book as a young teen, and got this for my daughter. There are quite a lot of lessons of wisdom in this book. I'm not sure how much I like this particular translation/version of the panchatantra, but I do recommend these stories. My daughter is still a little young for them (she is 4), but I "edit" the parts I don't think she needs to hear (such as changing "ass" to "donkey") but she seems to like these stories already...

I was looking for a series of Amar Chitra classics that I remember reading when I was younger. And not being to find them anymore, I thought I'd try this book out.

The stories are similar to what I remember reading when I was young. But it is written in an irritating manner. You'll find one story encapsulating another story which encapsulates another story and then it folds backwards to finish the first story - many, many pages after it first began. And they do that again and again. So much so that it became burdensome to read this after a while.

What a pity, because the stories are nice. I just never remember it being told like this before. And with so many interjections of other stories inside stories. Still, given that it's hard to find nice stories of folklore from India, you might be hard pressed to find better books. But be warned about the irritating style in this book.