Kalilag and Damnag

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Kalilag and Damnag (in Syriac) or Kalila wa dimna ( كليلة و دمنة in Arabic), are the titles for two versions of the Panchatantra, an ancient Sanskrit collection of fables from India. It was translated to Pahlavi (Middle Persian) then into Syriac, and later into Arabic from whence it migrated into all European languages. In modern Persian it is called Anvar-i Suhaili or "The Lights of Canopus"

The book puts wisdom fables put into the mouths of animals for the edification of humans. The two main figures of the first section are the jackals Kalila and Dimna (Sanskrit: Karataka and Damanaka). The main narrator is the philosopher (Hakim) Bidpai (Arabic: Baydaba, French Pilpay), who is asked for a fable by the king Dabshalim.

The fables originated around 200 BC in a Sanskrit collection of animal stories called the Panchatantra. In the 6th century, at the command of the Sassanian King Khosrau I of Persia, a translation was made into Pahlavi, the literary language of Persia at the time.

By the end of the 6th century, a Syriac translation from Pahlavi was made (Kalilag and Damnag) and another one into Arabic (Kalila wa Dimna) in the 8th century by Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa in Baghdad.

Around 1080, a translation from Arabic into Greek (Τα κατά Στεφανίτην και Ιχνηλάτην Things of the Crowned and the Envious) was prepared by Simeon Seth, then one into Hebrew about 1240, and old Castilian (Calila e Dimna) in 1250.

From the Hebrew translation came the version into Latin (Calila et Dimna), made by John of Capua, dating from about 1270 and called Directorium Humanae Vitae, or "Directory of Human Life."

From this Latin version came the German translation, first printed about 1481 at the instance of Duke Eberhard.

From the Latin version came the English version of Sir Thomas North, 1570.

[edit] La Fontaine

La Fontaine, the great French fabulist, in the second edition of his Fables, 1678, confesses his indebtedness to 'Pilpay', the "Indian Sage":

"This is a second book of fables that I present to the public... I have to acknowledge that the greatest part is inspired from Pilpay, an Indian Sage" ("Je dirai par reconnaissance que j’en dois la plus grande partie à Pilpay sage indien") Jean de La Fontaine

In the Fable entitled "Le Milan, le Roi et le Chasseur" (XII, 12) La Fontaine explains that "Pilpay has the Adventure start near the Ganges" ("Pilpay fait près du Gange arriver l’aventure").

[edit] See also

• Arabic literature
• Persian literature
• Indian literature
• Ion Keith-Falconer — translator (1885)

[edit] External links

• A brief summary of translations

[edit] Bibliography

• Ibn al-Muqaffa`, `Abd'allah. Calila e Dimna. Eds. Juan Manuel Cacho Blecua and María Jesus Lacarra. Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1984.
• Ibn al-Muqaffa`, `Abdallah. Kalilah et Dimnah. Ed. P. Louis Cheiko. 3 ed. Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1947.
• Keller, John Esten, and Robert White Linker. El libro de Calila e Digna. Madrid Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1967.
• Latham, J.D. "Ibn al-Muqaffa` and Early `Abbasid Prose." `Abbasid Belles-Lettres. Eds. Julia Ashtiany, et al. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. 48-77.
• Parker, Margaret. The Didactic Structure and Content of El libro de Calila e Digna. Miami, FL: Ediciones Universal, 1978.
• Penzol, Pedro. Las traducciones del "Calila e Dimna". Madrid,: Impr. de Ramona Velasco, viuda de P. Perez,, 1931.
• Wacks, David A. "The Performativity of Ibn al-Muqaffas Kalîla wa-Dimna and Al-Maqamat al-Luzumiyya of al-Saraqusti." Journal of Arabic Literature 34.1-2 (2003): 178-89.ar:كليلة و دمنة

fr:Kalîla wa Dimna id:Hikayat Kalilah dan Daminah he:כלילה ודמנה ka:ქილილა და დამანა sv:Kalila och Dimna tr:Kelile ve Dimne (kitap)