Kalîla wa dimna

Kalila wa Dimna is a book based on a work of Indian popular literature, the Panchatantra (“Five Books”). A compilation of parables written in Sanskrit, the work was initially attributed to a fourth-century Kashmiri Vishnuite Brahman, then to an Indian sage named Bidpai or Pilpay. The book was translated into Arabic in the eighth century by the scholar ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffa[1] from a lost Pahlavi version produced by the physician Burzoe for the Sassanid king Khosrow Anūshirvan (reigned 531–79). The work was immensely popular, giving rise to several translations. In the early twelfth century, Abū al-Ma‘ali Nasr Allāh Munshi produced a Persian version for Bahrām Shāh of Ghazni[2], there was also a Greek version and a Hebrew version from the early thirteenth century[3], whose illustrations featured important similarities with Arabic models and that most likely served as the basis for the Latin version by John of Capua (1236–1278), the source of later European versions. A prose version of Ibn al-Muqaffa’s text inspired a verse version in the fourteenth century, which was partially translated into French by Gibert Gaulmin in 1644[4].

Brought back to Europe by scholars or ambassadors in the form of Arabic or Persian manuscripts, the book was present in all the major libraries of the seventeenth century, such as the Bibliothèque Royale and the Bibliothèque Colbertine. Jean de La Fontaine was inspired by these fables, “known by all”, which supplied him with a large supply of stories that he made “new by a few touches that brought out their flavour”[5]. He did not, however, use the form of the Indian text, preferring that of the Aesopic fable[6]. The Fables of Bidpai was not the author’s only source, but he claimed to adhere to it in his preface, going as far as to assimilate Pilpay to Aesop (one of his main sources), under the name of the sage Locman[7].

Kalila wa Dimna belongs to the literary genre of “mirrors for princes” containing moral and political instruction for high-ranking figures. The tales are grouped together in chapters, which form a coherent whole thanks to a narrative structure featuring dialogue. Each chapter opens with a question from the Indian sovereign Dablishim to the adviser, philosopher and legendary auteur Bilpai, about the consequences of an action, which is then explained in a story with animals for protagonists; the main characters are two jackals named Kalila and Dimna. Each story ends with a moral. In addition to the amusing nature of the stories, the language and the lively and witty dialogue of the work are delightful; it is thought that it has influenced a great number of major works of Eastern literature, such as Rumi’s masnavi, the Thousand and One Nights, Ferdowsī’s Shāh-nāmeh and Nezāmi’s Khamseh.

The text of Kalila wa Dimna was one of the first to be illustrated in the Arab world. Apparently, the first version of the work in Pahlavi already contained illustrations, and there are wall paintings of the Panchatantra[8] cycle in India and Central Asia. One of the oldest Arabic copies of Kalila wa Dimna dates from 1220; produced by Syrian workshops, it is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The work, containing ninety-eight paintings (including seven added later), belongs to the so-called classical period. Its paintings are imbued with a certain hieratic quality; organised along a vertical axis, the scenes feature stylistic elements reminiscent of contemporary Byzantine manuscripts, such as De Materia Medica by Dioscorides[9]. Given its content and quality, this volume was intended for an important figure, but the badly damaged frontispiece features a throne scene whose prince is anonymous; no sovereign’s name is mentioned in this copy.

[2] Ghaznavid sovereign who reigned between 1118 and 1157.

[3] A Hebrew version by Rabbi Joel in the early twelfth century is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

[4] Livre des Lumières ou la Conduite des rois, composé par le sage Pilpay, indien, traduit en français par David Sahib d’Ispahan, ville capitale de Perse (Paris: S. Piget, 1644). In-8°. Paris, BNF, Impr., E*-3069 (rel. Aux armes du cardinal Huet ; ex-dono du cardinal Huet à la maison professe des jésuites.

[5] Jean de la Fontaine, “Preface”, Fables choisies mises en vers [1668] (Pleiade) vol. I, 7.

[6] The Aesopic fable made up of a compilation of independent texts, while the Indian fable features a continuous narrative.

[7] In 1673 Tanneguy Le Fèvre translated forty-one fables by the sage Locman.

[8] The cycle of paintings by Panjikent in Sogdiana, dating from the seventh and eighth centuries, illustrates the themes of the Panchatantra and Aesop’s fables. It was most probably a prototype that influenced later Arab and Persian paintings.

[9] Now in Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, n 3704, thirteenth century.