Vishnu-Sarman and the King’s Sons

On the banks of the holy river Ganges stood a city called Pataliputra. Its king was a good and honest ruler named Sudarsana.

One day the king happened to hear someone reciting a few lines of verse. They said that wise people value wisdom above every pleasure. Wisdom is the greatest treasure, the verses went, because no one can buy it and no one can steal it, and once you have it you never lose it. It brings hidden things into the light and clears away confusing doubts. Wisdom helps a person notice and understand what might otherwise be missed.

The words troubled the king, because he thought at once of his own sons. They were learning nothing. They never opened the holy books. They were wandering down every wrong road there was.

“A man with no children at all is better off than a man whose son is a fool,” the king sighed to himself. “One wise son brings his father more joy than forty foolish ones, just as a single moon lights up the night sky better than all the tiny stars.”

Then another thought came to him. “Some people say that trying is useless,” he mused. “They say, ‘What will be, will be, and nothing we do can change it.’ But that is just an excuse for being lazy. Sesame seeds are full of oil, yet you get none unless you press them. Fate and effort work together, like the two wheels of a cart. A cart cannot roll on one wheel. And a sleeping lion never finds a deer walking into his den. If you want something good, you must get up and work for it.”

So the king called together all the learned men of his kingdom.

“Listen, my scholars,” he said. “Is there anyone among you wise enough to teach my sons the art of good ruling? They have never studied the holy books, and they are going completely astray. But even a piece of plain glass can shine a little like gold when it is set beside gold. Perhaps foolish boys can grow wise if they spend time with wise people.”

Then a great sage stood up. His name was Vishnu-Sarman, and people said he understood the art of ruling as well as the teacher of the gods.

“My lord king,” he said, “I will teach these princes. They come from a noble family, and that matters. If you try to teach the unworthy, all your work is wasted. You can teach a parrot to talk, but you could repeat words to a heron twenty times and it would never say a thing. These boys are royal in spirit, though. In six months I promise to make your sons understand how a good king thinks and acts.”

The king was pleased. “When the sun rises over the eastern mountains,” he said, “even ordinary stones on the slopes begin to shine. In the same way, a wise teacher can make ordinary minds bright. You are the right man to teach my children, honoured sir.”

So, very kindly, the king placed the princes in the sage’s care.

Vishnu-Sarman began this lesson with a story. Instead he sat down with the princes on a palace balcony, where they could make themselves comfortable, and he said, “Listen, my princes. To entertain you, I am going to tell you a story about a crow, a tortoise, a deer and a mouse.”

“Oh yes, sir,” said the king’s sons. “Please tell it!”

“It is a story about how to win friends,” said Vishnu-Sarman, “and here is the first thing it teaches: even without money or a clever plan, wise friends can get what they need, just as the mouse, the crow, the deer and the tortoise did.”

And with that, the old sage began to tell his stories.

About this story

This is the opening frame of the Hitopadesha, an old Sanskrit book of animal stories and wise sayings that shares many of its tales with the Panchatantra. It is retold here from Edwin Arnold’s translation, The Book of Good Counsels, as reprinted in the anthology Hindu Literature (Project Gutenberg #13268). In his preface Arnold calls the Hitopadesha “The Father of all Fables.” He says he shortened the long runs of verses that interrupt the stories, and he thanks Professor Johnson’s version and edition of the book.

Arnold’s translation combines prose dialogue with rhyming maxims. Here the selected verses are turned into plain sentences. The tale Vishnu-Sarman begins to tell, about a crow, a tortoise, a deer and a mouse, also appears on this site.

Read the original: Edwin Arnold, The Book of Good Counsels, in Hindu Literature (Project Gutenberg #13268)

Best for ages 6–8 — a story about a worried father, a patient teacher, and why stories can be the best way to learn.

A closer reading

The king’s images turn a difficult idea into things the princes might picture: oil must be pressed from seeds, a cart needs two wheels, and a sleeping lion cannot catch dinner. The frame is already demonstrating the teaching method it will introduce. Images and stories help give an abstract argument about effort a form readers can examine.

The scene ends when teaching begins, so it offers a promise of change rather than proof that six months will make anyone wise. The princes’ eager response to the first animal story does show an immediate change in attention. That is a more limited and useful observation than declaring books or rules useless.

The sage’s claim that royal birth makes the boys worthy of education reflects hierarchy in the telling. A reader need not accept it: family rank does not establish a learner’s worth. The king’s comparison with ordinary stones becoming bright even suggests a broader possibility for learning than the sage’s restrictive claim.

Try this with the story

Choose the oil, cart or sleeping-lion comparison. Explain what each part stands for and one limit of the comparison. Then imagine the princes asking a question after the promised animal story: what would show that they had thought about it rather than merely remembered it?

Talk about it

• How do the king’s everyday comparisons explain effort?
• What change in the princes can we actually see before the page ends?
• Why should royal birth not determine who deserves teaching?
• What could a story teach that a memorized rule might leave unexplained?

More stories like this

• The Doves and the Hunter’s Net: A Hitopadesha Parable of Unity and Leadership — another story from the Hitopadesha
• Meeting a New Friend — more about the crow, the mouse and their friends