2023-03-04 05:47:27 by suhasm
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work, thus enlarged, Burzoe seems to have given the name of
"Karaṭaka and Damanaka", or rather Pahlavi transcriptions of
those names. As every one knows, these are the names of the
two jackals who play prominent roles in the First Book of the
Pañcatantra (Mitrabheda, the Lion and the Bull).
This Pahlavi translation is unfortunately lost. But two
further translations were made from it at an early date; and one
of these was destined to carry a knowledge of the Pañcatantra
all over Europe, many centuries before any Indian form of the
work could become known there.
Of these two, one was made into Syriac, a few decades after
Burzoe's own time, in the same 6th century. This Syriac version
left no descendants, and was itself unknown until it was accidentally
discovered in the middle of the 19th century. Since then it has
been twice edited by German scholars and translated into German.
We have of it only copies of a single incomplete and imperfect
manuscript; nevertheless it has great historic value, since it throws
much light on the Pahlavi, to which in many places it is demon-
strably closer than is the Arabic.
The other translation of the Pahlavi was made into Arabic
by Abdallah ibn al-Moqaffa in the 8th century.* It is entitled
Kalilah wa-Dimnah, an Arabic transcription of the Pahlavi equiva-
lent of "Karaṭaka and Damanaka". It probably included the
whole of Burzoe's work; and to it the translator Abdallah prefixed
a pretace of his own and added various other stories, some of them
his own inventions. In this form the work has become one of the
most familiar and popular books of Arabic literature; it exists
"Karaṭaka and Damanaka", or rather Pahlavi transcriptions of
those names. As every one knows, these are the names of the
two jackals who play prominent roles in the First Book of the
Pañcatantra (Mitrabheda, the Lion and the Bull).
This Pahlavi translation is unfortunately lost. But two
further translations were made from it at an early date; and one
of these was destined to carry a knowledge of the Pañcatantra
all over Europe, many centuries before any Indian form of the
work could become known there.
Of these two, one was made into Syriac, a few decades after
Burzoe's own time, in the same 6th century. This Syriac version
left no descendants, and was itself unknown until it was accidentally
discovered in the middle of the 19th century. Since then it has
been twice edited by German scholars and translated into German.
We have of it only copies of a single incomplete and imperfect
manuscript; nevertheless it has great historic value, since it throws
much light on the Pahlavi, to which in many places it is demon-
strably closer than is the Arabic.
The other translation of the Pahlavi was made into Arabic
by Abdallah ibn al-Moqaffa in the 8th century.* It is entitled
Kalilah wa-Dimnah, an Arabic transcription of the Pahlavi equiva-
lent of "Karaṭaka and Damanaka". It probably included the
whole of Burzoe's work; and to it the translator Abdallah prefixed
a pretace of his own and added various other stories, some of them
his own inventions. In this form the work has become one of the
most familiar and popular books of Arabic literature; it exists