Question on panchatantra

[Michael Hahn]

Dear colleagues,

The story is a very popular one in the Tibetan (Central Asian) Buddhist
context.  In China it was added to the story of Dandin or Adarsamukha,
as preserved in the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadins, when Chinese monks
finalized their collection of stories entitled "The Sutra of the Wise
Man and the Fool" or Xianyujing in 445 AD. Our story is legend No. 39.
This was (partially) translated into Tibetan in the ninth century.  Here
it is legend No. 3. An English translation can be found in
Schiefner/Ralston, Tibetan Tales, London, pp. 29-36. The text is also
edited in my "Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache,", pp.
227-232, A German translation can be found in the "Schluessel" to the
"Lehrbuch," Marburg 2003, pp. 23-32. I have studied the Indian version
of the legend in my paper "Die Haribhattajatakamala (I). Das
Adarsamukhajataka," WZKS XVII (1973), pp. 49-88. The Indian version does
not contain the quarrel of the two women about a child! The latter story
is extremely popular in the Slavonian (and adjacent) literatures. It was
studied in an unpublished Ph. D.  thesis bei Zvi Sofer, "Das Urteil des
Schemjaka," Muenster 1965.  The motif also forms the core of Bertolt
Brecht's play "Der kaukasische Kreidekreis." It is not contained in the
various Panchatantra recensions!

Hope this helps!

Michael Hahn

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Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn
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