Panchatantra: The Brahmin And The Goat And Other Stories (Amar Chitra Katha)

Panchatantra (Five Chapters) in Sanskrit is perhaps the oldest collection of stories in the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Each of its 'Chapters' contains a string of stories one emerging from the other, with each designed to lead to a precept for proper practical conduct for a thinking person in the real world. The characters are taken from the whole gamut of living beings including humans and animals in the wild. In a way the unity of life is stressed by assigning the sentiments, emotions and thoughts of human beings to animals as well.In this collection, three cunning fellows vex a Brahmin into throwing away a goat carried by him, by calling the animal as a calf, a dog and a donkey. An elephant heeds the request of mice not to trample them; and is gratefully freed by them when trapped later. A sage turns a mouse into a girl. When she is grown up and asked to choose a groom, she rejects the sun, cloud, wind and mountain one by one and settles upon the mouse as the mightiest. This Panchatantra collection is a treasure house of a variety of such stories.