The Story of a wise snake
Closer to a certain part of the Varuna mountain, there lived an aged black Cobra by name MandhaVisha. He deliberated in his mind thus: How can I manage to have a comfortable living. He then crawled towards a great assemblage of frogs and gave an impression that he was infirm.
As he
stayed thus, one of the frogs swimming near the edge of the water-pool asked
him thus: Hi! Uncle! How come you are
not hunting for food as before? MandhaVisha replied thus: My dear! How can an
unfortunate like me, desire for food? Today
in the early hours of the night, I was crawling around looking for food and I
noticed a frog and prepared to grab him too.
He too noticed me, and in the fear of death slipped in somewhere in the
group of students who were intent on reciting texts and could not make out
which way the frog had slithered away.
But at the edge of the pool, a student was standing and I mistaking his
toe for a frog, bit it hard. The boy too
instantly died. His father, stung by
grief, cursed me thus: you wicked! You strung my innocent son to death. You shall suffer for this by becoming a
vehicle for frogs. And you shall live
entirely on what the frogs allow you for food.
So I am here as your vehicle.
Through
him the news was carried to all the other frogs. They were all excited about it that they
approached the frog-King JalaPaadha. He
in turn, thinking what a wonderful happening it was, swam out of the pool in a
hurry and accompanied by his ministers went and sat on the hood of
MandhaVisha. The other frogs in order to
seniority many of them also climbed on to the back of MandhaVisha. The others not finding space on the back of
MandhaVisha, hopped behind him.
MandhaVisha, on his part keen on securing a comfortable living for
himself, showed them different kind of turns and movements.
Then,
next day, MandhaVisha crawled slowly.
Looking at that, the frog-King JalaPaadha said thus: Oh! Friend!
MandhaVisha! Why are you not carrying us nicely as you did before? MandhaVisha replied thus: Oh! Lord! Due to the lack of food, I do not
have the strength to carry you proper today.
Then the frog-king told thus: Oh! Good fellow! You can feed yourself on
common frogs. On listening this,
MandhaVisha thrilled with delight in every part of his limb started to say
thus: Oh! The frog-king! I have this curse on me. But by your word of command, I am
delighted.
Then,
MandhaVisha started eating frogs continuously without interruption, so much
that in a few days, he grew strong. Thus
all the frogs were eaten by him.
Moral of
the story:
“Skandhena
api vaheth sathrum kaalam aasaadhya buddhimaan l
Mahathaa krushna sarpena Mandookaa bahavo
hathaah ll”
Waiting for a proper time to succeed, a wise, should bear even the enemies on his back, like a wise-black Cobra by name MandhaVisha by whom all the frogs were being borne and eaten.
(This story is taken from the titled Kaakolookeeyam - the 3rd volume of the book PanchaThanthram which has five volumes viz., MitraBedhah, MitraLaabhah, Kaakolookeeyam, Labdhapranaasam and AparikshitaKaarakam written by Vishnu Sarma was an Indian scholar. The exact period of the composition of the Panchatantra is uncertain, and estimates vary from 1200 BCE to 300 CE.
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