The remark of the old hare was enough to drive the lion into such a fury that he would have killed the hare right away. But he had to find the other lion first! “Harm me! What nonsense!” roared the lion, “You just take me to him and I’ll show him what I can do […]
The old hare played around in the forest and reached the lion very late. The hungry lion was in a very bad temper at having been kept waiting for so long. And all that he would get after such a long wait was one small hare! He roared, “Why are you so late?” “Your Majesty,
Once, there was a washerman, who had a dog and a donkey. The washerman loved them both. But every evening, he would play with his dog. Seeing this, the donkey wondered why he was not his master’s favourite even though he carried huge loads on his back. One day, the donkey observed the dog. When
Mrs Crow was very unhappy because all her babies were killed and eaten by the snake. One day, Mr Crow told her that he would find a way to destroy their enemy. “But how?” asked Mrs Crow. “Like the little hare destroyed a mighty lion!” replied Mr Crow. In a forest on Mandara mountain lived
Damanaka’s stories showed how people often paid for their own folly. He told Karataka that now they were starving because they had brought the bull to the lion king. So, they planned to break the friendship between the lion and the bull. “We have to do some trickery like the crow who killed the serpent,”
The cowherd went back to sleep after punishing the woman he thought was his wife. His own wife later returned and set the barber’s wife free. In the morning, the cowherd came to see his wife. He was stunned to see that her nose was intact! ‘She must be a saint!’ he thought, ‘I should
One day, Kandarpaketu stayed in a cowherd’s house. He heard his wife talking to the barber’s wife who was not a good woman. The cowherd had told his wife to keep away from the barber’s wife. So when he heard her talking to the barber’s wife, he was very angry. He scolded his wife and
Once, a group of rats lived in a grocery shop. They would eat whatever they saw. The grocer was unhappy that the rats were creating havoc in the store every day. One day, he brought a cat to his shop. The cat began to kill the rats one by one. The rats were scared of
They had been very happy together for a long time. Ratnamanjari had a painting in her chamber of a Vidyadhari female named Suvarnarekha. When she married Kandarpaketu, she warned him never to touch that picture. In the beginning, he followed her instruction. But gradually, his curiosity to find out what would happen if he touched
Kanchanpura was ruled by a just king named Viravikrama. One day, his soldiers were taking a barber to the court whom they had arrested. A mendicant saw them and stopped the soldiers, saying, “Don’t punish him, sir! Only those who knowingly do wrong things should be punished.” The soldiers took him also along to the
One day, the king’s brother came to visit. The King asked for a feast for Brother Lion. Once again, the King found that a deer that had been available had been eaten by the jackals. Brother Lion advised the King to place the stores in the charge of Hefty, rather than the jackals. Hefty did
“Sir, we have brought you the bull!” said Damanaka. The King spent a lot of time talking to Hefty and gradually realised how wise the bull was. One day, Hefty asked him what became of the deer he had killed earlier in the day. “The jackals will know about it,” said the King. Hefty asked
A woman named Karala lived in the town. She was clever and did not accept things blindly. She always wished to know the truth and only then she believed something. So, she went to the king and offered to find out the truth, if she was rewarded suitably. The King ordered that she would be
A thief once came into the city of Brahmapura and stole a bell. He was running away into the surrounding Sriparvata hills when he was killed by a tiger. The bell lay in the forest on the mountainside. Some days later, a troop of monkeys found the bell. They enjoyed themselves playing with it. Jumping
Damanaka was not going to tell the King straightaway that it was only a bull bellowing in the forest. He planned first to create a mystery so that when he finally led Hefty to him, the King might feel very grateful to the jackals for having found out the truth. He told the King that