Retold by Kollengode S Venkataraman Written in 1995
[Panchatantra stories are forerunners for today’s cartoons. The Panchatantra was not written as children’s literature. It was intended to teach a future ruler the practical wisdom of statecraft through stories. These stories, at once funny and profound, give human characters to animals, address life’s dilemmas, and stress that brute force does not necessarily lead to survival. With an agile mind & quick wit, one can even transmute one’s helpless situations to one’s advantage, and render the strength of one’s adversaries irrelevant. You can call this a primer in realpolitik through a children’s story and can be interpreted at many levels. Vishnusharman, who lived around 2nd century AD in today’s Kashmir, wrote these stories in Sanskrit verses]
In a jungle, Wildcat and Mouse lived in a tree, Mouse in a burrow near the root, and Wildcat in the branches above. Mouse, realizing that Wildcat would be delighted to feast on him, stayed away from him.
One evening a trapper, looking for his catch, placed a net underneath the tree. Wildcat, not seeing the trap, jumped into it for the bait, and was snared. Mouse was vicariously pleased to see the plight of Wildcat entangled in the net. He gleefully ran around the net. Suddenly, Mouse noticed two predators, Owl on the tree and Mongoose on the ground, both ready to pounce on him. Mouse saw the situation threatening his very survival. Very quickly he decided on a plan.
He told Wildcat, “Friend, I will tear open the net with my sharp teeth and set you free if you shelter me inside the net.” Wildcat, desperate to get out of the net, agreed, seeing the deal as the only way to his freedom.
Inside the net was the strange sight of Wildcat, Mouse’s enemy under normal conditions, protecting him from Mongoose and Owl. Under Wildcat’s very protection, Mouse ran around inside the net, nibbling at the bait.
Mouse thought, “If I set Wildcat free right away, he being my natural enemy, may feast on me. Further, I will have to deal with three enemies, Wildcat, Owl, and Mongoose. Therefore, let me not be in any hurry to free Wildcat!”
Wildcat protested to Mouse the delay in releasing him. Mouse thought: “By daybreak, Owl and Mongoose would be gone & the trapper would be coming for his catch. If I free Wildcat then, he can’t even think of me because he has to save himself from the trapper.” Further, Mouse knew that his arch enemy, and now his savior, Wildcat, had no other choice but to wait. So, he told Wildcat, “My dear friend, wait till daybreak, and I will set you free.” Wildcat waited, not having an alternative.
Mongoose and Owl were gone by daybreak. Mouse, seeing the approaching trapper, chewed the net away and released Wildcat. Both ran for their safety, Wildcat to the branches above, beyond the reaches of the trapper, and Mouse, to his rat hole beyond the reach of Wildcat.
Endnote: In politics, there are no permanent friends and permanent enemies. We have only permanent interests. Attributed to Winston Churchill (1940s)