Question on panchatantra

[Peter Wyzlic]

On Thu, 8 Mar 2007 11:48:45 -0800
  Dean Anderson <eastwestcultural at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
  
>      I am doing important folklore-related research and 
>need to learn some details about a story in the 
>Panchatantra.  I have only read a summary of it in 
>another book and have not yet been able to find a full 
>English translation.  According to the summary I read, 
>two women are traveling together with their infants. 
> While asleep in a forest, a wolf kills one of the 
>babies, and the mother swaps the corpse for the other’s 
>child while the latter is still asleep.  A dispute 
>ensues, and the women appear at the court of Gopicandra, 
>where they present their case.  A wise parrot advises 
>that the disputed child be cut in half.  The true mother 
>objects. This reveals the authenticity of her claim, and 
>she is awarded the child. 
> 
> The reference that was given for the story is 
>  Vikramodaya, No. 14 in Hertel’s Panchatantra (1914), 
>154.   However, this reference appears to be  inaccurate; 
>and I have not been able to find a version of this story 
>in any of the English translations that I’ve looked 
>through.  

There seems to be a misunderstanding in some answers to 
this inquiry. The reference to Hertel does not point to a 
collection of stories named Pancatantra but to Hertel's 
monograph on the Pancatantra tradition: _Das Pancatantra : 
seine Geschichte und seine Verbreitung_. Leipzig, 1914. On 
pages 153-157 he deals with a story found in the Old 
Gujarati Pancakhyanavarttika (he provides the Old Gujarati 
in Devanagari characters and a German translation). In its 
main part the story contains a version of the Solomonic 
judgement. But it does not contain the particulars as 
mentioned above (the wolf etc.), and Hertel does not refer 
to the Vikramodaya.

The source of this reference seems to me rather an article 
by Theodor Zachariae: "Indische Märchen aus den Lettres 
édifiantes et curieuses", in: Zeitschrift des Vereins für 
Volkskunde. 16 (1906), pp. 129-149 (reprinted in Th. 
Zachariae: _Kleine Schriften zur indischen Philologie ..._ 
Bonn und Leipzig, 1920, pp. 145-170). On pages 150 seqq. 
of the reprint version he deals with a version of the 
Solomonic judgement found in the Vikramodaya (a rare work, 
Zachariae knew only one ms. in the India Office Library). 
Zachariae gives a paraphrase of the story on page 154 
(reprint version), mainly based on Sergei F. Oldenburg: 
_Buddiiskiia legendy_. St. Petersburg, 1894, pp. 136-140 
who was probably the first Western scholar who was aware 
of this work.

Hope it helps
Peter Wyzlic

--
Indologisches Seminar der
Universität Bonn
Regina-Pacis-Weg 7
D-53113 Bonn
Deutschland / Germany