Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), today I will share yet another tale from this monumental book The Panćatantra, tradition ascribes this fabulous work to Vişņu Śarma (“Preserver of Bliss”), faced with the challenge of educating three unlettered princes, to awaken their intelligence, Vişņu Śarma (“Preserver of Bliss”) evolved a unique pedagogy – for his aim was to teach the princes how to think, not what to think.
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Before we embark on this wonder filled, journey I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from yet another monumental work which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”:
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:
Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
The tale of ‘The Snake in the Prince’s belly’
In a certain city there ruled a king named Shining Power whose son wasted away every limb because a snake had made his belly its home in place of an anthill. Overcome by acute depression, the prince decided to leave home and go to some distant land. He made his home in a great temple in one of the cities of the kingdom he came to and lived by begging for alms.
The ruler of that kingdom, King Bounteous, had two daughters who had just entered womanhood. One of them approached the king each morning and bowing at his feet greeted him with, ‘May His Majesty be ever victorious!’ while the other simply said, ‘Enjoy your just desserts, Your Majesty!’ This greeting finally angered the king so much that he summoned his ministers one day and said, ‘Honourable Counsellors, take this princess away, for her words grate on my ears. Marry her to some foreigner and let her enjoy her just desserts.’
Acquiescing in the royal whim, the ministers took the princess waited upon by a mere handful of attendants, to the temple where the unfortunate prince had taken sanctuary; and they gave the princess in marriage to him.
The princess joyously accepted the ailing prince as her husband and looked upon him as a god. She accompanied him to another country. There, in one of the great cities, they found a dwelling house situated at the edge of a large pond. Leaving her husband in charge of the house, the princess accompanied by her maids went to the market to buy butter and oil, salt, species and rice and other necessary household supplies.
When the princess returned with the maids after completing all her shopping, what did she see but the prince fast asleep with his head resting against an anthill. And from his mouth emerged the hood head of a snake taking the air. Likewise another snake had emerged from the anthill and was taking the air.
As the two snakes confronted each other their eyes reddened with anger. The snake that had emerged from the anthill, was the first to speak. ‘Oh! You vile creature! How can you torment this prince, who is so perfectly handsome, in this cruel manner?’ The snake standing within the prince’s mouth hissed furiously and said, ‘Vile creature yourself! How can you defile those two pots filled with magic drink that are hidden within the anthill?’
And so, the two snakes lashing out at each other revealed each other’s secrets. The anthill snake continued, ‘Oh! You vile creature! Do you really believe that nobody knows the simple remedy by which you can be destroyed? That by drinking a decoction of black mustard seeds, you can be easily killed?’
The snake in the prince’s belly angrily hissed back, ‘Ha! And you believe that nobody knows the way to get rid of you! Why by pouring boiling water into the anthill, you can be destroyed.’
The princess who had been listening to all this, concealed behind some bushes, now did exactly as the angry exchange between the two snakes had conveyed to her. Following the treatments that she had overheard when the snakes revealed their mutual weak points, she restored her husband to sound health and also gained great prosperity. She then set out towards her native land where she was joyously welcomed and honoured by her parents and kinsfolk. There she lived happily ever after with the prince, enjoying all the pleasures allotted to her by Destiny.
The Panćatantra (Of Crows and Owls) – The Snake in the Prince’s belly – Vişņu Śarma
Translated from the Sanskrit by Chandra Rajan
Let us remember:
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
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