Tales from the Panchatantra.

A recent Panchatantra festival was marked by vibrant costumes, puppetery, masks, body paints and other traditional Indian folk theatre concepts. Puja Goyal reports.

Harlequin Entertainment recently brought to Bangalore, Panchatantra at RangaShankara between 5th July and 10th July 2005. The entire cast comprised of twenty adults who played the roles of humans, animals and children; it was directed by Balaji Manohar; who has to his credit, Girish Karnad's Naga Mandala, and T P Kailasam's Bandvalvillada Badayi.

Careful attention was paid to all details- vibrant colors for the costumes, and usage of traditional Indian folk theater concepts like puppetry, masks and body paint to enhance the experience of Panchatantra. A Mela was up at the foyer, and stalls displayed materials ranging from the Panchatantra comics to pottery, puppets, handicrafts etc.

Panchatantra (pŭn; chetŭn´tre) is an anthropomorphic illustration of the five most important principles of Raja neeti (political science) through animals. It consists of five (pancha) main tenets (tantra) and was probably compiled before 500 AD.

Once upon a time there was a king named Amarshakti who ruled Mahilaropya in South India. He had three sons whose names were Bahusakti, Ugrasakti and Anantshakti, who were badly in need of being disciplined. The king put them in the charge of Pundit Vishnu Sharma, who taught them all about politics, administration and morals through a series of fables. The stories were so constructed that one lead to another but the unity of theme was never lost. The pundit instructed the princes in the art of politics and worldly wisdom, within a short period of time.

The Panchatantra was written by Pundit Vishnu Sharma but the Hitopadesha came much later. Narayana, the author of Hitopadesha, drew most of his material from Panchatantra. He reconstructed the first three tantras and introduced eighteen stories which are not found in the other versions of the Panchatantra. Narayana has divided his work into four sections: Mitralabha (Gaining Friends), Suhrudbheda (Causing Dissension between Friends), Vigraha (Separation) and Sandhi (Union). But the raison d’etre of both books remains the same.

Some of the tales themselves must be much older, their origin going back to the period of the Vedas and the Upanishads (1500 B.C. to 500 B.C.). So far the Panchatantra has been translated into more than 50 languages of the world. Through small and simple fables and the medium of animals one discovers the psychology of the man. The morals that the Panchatantra seeks to teach continue to be relevant to this day and the stories themselves have not lost their novelty even 2,000 years after they were first told.

Varied Perspectives: Stories from the Panchatantra continue to captivate the minds of individuals who grew up with it, but somehow with the passing of time the stories have succumbed to foreign comic fiction. Says Vivek Madan, a noted theatre personality, "Children have few forms of pure entertainment today. Sitting in front of a TV or playing video games seems to be where it stops."

Veena Appiah, a member of Harlequin Entertainment, adds, "There are plans of touring with this play, within Bangalore in various schools and within Karnataka. We are working on a Kannada translation of the play to travel with."

If one would ask a child, he would say he enjoys playing video games, or watching animation on television. All it requires is a box to keep a child entertained. Shrilekha Jain studies art at Chitrakala Parishad and has never read Panchatantra in her life. She says, "We are largely influenced by western culture nowadays and their stories are more adventurous to us. With animation at its best and interesting stories of Harry Potter and Lion King around, who has the time to read Fables? Imaginative stories with moral do not survive anymore and children are taught to be more intellectual rather than moralistic. What amazes us more is what our parents have to say about their childhood. Those are the real stories for us…"

So is this ancient Indian form of story telling combined with teachings, becoming obsolete? What we need is to revamp them into a new package in order to cater to the masses. Clearly technology has played an important role in influencing our choices.

- Cast and Crew of Panchatantra -

(Source: Vijay Times, Life Pg 3.)
Copyright © 2005 Puja Goyal.