The old tiger and the golden bangle
सो ऽब्रवीत् — अहम् एकदा दक्षिणारण्ये चरन्न् अपश्यम् एको वृद्धो व्याघ्रः स्नातः कुशहस्तः सरस्तीरे ब्रूते — भो भो पान्थाः! इदं सुवर्णकङ्कणं गृह्यताम् ।
ततो लोभाकृष्टेन केनचित् पान्थेन आलोचितम् — भाग्येन एतत् सम्भवति । …
प्रकाशं ब्रूते — कुत्र तव कङ्कणम्? व्याघ्रो हस्तं प्रसार्य दर्शयति । पान्थो ऽवदत् — कथं मारात्मके त्वयि विश्वासः? …
तद् अत्र सरसि स्नात्वा सुवर्णकङ्कणम् इदं गृहाण । ततो यावद् असौ तद्वचःप्रतीतो लोभात् सरः स्नातुं प्रविष्टः, तावन् महापङ्के निमग्नः पलायितुम् अक्षमः । …
इति चिन्तयन्न् एवासौ व्याघ्रेण धृत्वा व्यापादितः खादितश् च ।
कङ्कणस्य तु लोभेन मग्नः पङ्के सुदुस्तरे ।
वृद्धव्याघ्रेण सम्प्राप्तः पथिकः सम्मृतः ॥
so 'bravīt — aham ekadā dakṣiṇāraṇye carann apaśyam eko vṛddho vyāghraḥ snātaḥ kuśahastaḥ sarastīre brūte — bho bho pānthāḥ! idaṃ suvarṇakaṅkaṇaṃ gṛhyatām |
tato lobhākṛṣṭena kenacit pānthena ālocitam — bhāgyena etat sambhavati | …
prakāśaṃ brūte — kutra tava kaṅkaṇam? vyāghro hastaṃ prasārya darśayati | pāntho 'vadat — kathaṃ mārātmake tvayi viśvāsaḥ? …
tad atra sarasi snātvā suvarṇakaṅkaṇam idaṃ gṛhāṇa | tato yāvad asau tadvacaḥpratīto lobhāt saraḥ snātuṃ praviṣṭaḥ, tāvan mahāpaṅke nimagnaḥ palāyitum akṣamaḥ | …
iti cintayann evāsau vyāghreṇa dhṛtvā vyāpāditaḥ khāditaś ca |
kaṅkaṇasya tu lobhena magnaḥ paṅke sudustare |
vṛddhavyāghreṇa samprāptaḥ pathikaḥ sammṛtaḥ ||
Translation
He said: "Once, wandering in the southern forest, I saw an old tiger, freshly bathed, kuśa grass in hand, on the bank of a lake, calling: 'Ho, travellers! Take this golden bangle!' A traveller, drawn by greed, thought: 'This is luck ...' Aloud he said: 'Where is your bangle?' The tiger stretched out his paw and showed it. The traveller said: 'How can I trust you, a killer by nature?' ... [The tiger:] 'So bathe in this lake and take this golden bangle.' Trusting his words, the man went into the lake out of greed to bathe, sank into deep mud and could not get away. ... While he was still thinking this, the tiger seized him, killed him and ate him. Through greed for a bangle, stuck in mud hard to cross, a traveller caught by an old tiger met his death."
The story
Hitopadeśa, book 1 (Mitralābha, "Winning Friends"). A hunter has scattered rice grains under a net, and the pigeon king Citragrīva warns his flock not to fly down: free food in an empty forest is suspicious. He tells this story.
An old tiger, too weak to hunt, sits by a lake looking like a holy man and offers a golden bangle to passers-by. One greedy traveller hesitates and asks how he can trust a tiger. The tiger answers with a long, learned speech: in his youth he was wicked and lost his family, a holy man taught him to give gifts, he is now old, toothless and clawless, and he quotes verse after verse from the law books on generosity. Persuaded, the traveller wades into the lake to bathe before receiving the gift, sinks into the mud, and the tiger walks over and seizes him. Too late, the traveller reflects that reciting scripture does not change a nature: milk is sweet by nature, and so is a tiger a killer.
The pigeons ignore the moral, fly down, are caught in the net, and are saved only by their friend the mouse Hiraṇyaka, which leads into the main story of the book.
Meaning
This is the first story inside the Hitopadeśa's first book, and it shows the book's method: a story inside a story, with verses quoted as evidence by the characters themselves. The tiger wins the argument with the very verses on dharma (Hit 1.8–1.16) that a reader would trust most.
The lesson is not that learning is useless but that words do not change a nature, and that greed makes us stop asking questions.
Word by word · 14 words
| Devanagari | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| वृद्धः | vṛddhaḥ | old (nom. sg. m.) |
| व्याघ्रः | vyāghraḥ | tiger (nom. sg. m.) |
| स्नातः | snātaḥ | having bathed (past participle of √snā) |
| कुशहस्तः | kuśahastaḥ | with kuśa grass in his hand, the sign of someone performing a rite |
| पान्थाः | pānthāḥ | travellers (voc. pl. m.) |
| सुवर्णकङ्कणम् | suvarṇakaṅkaṇam | golden bangle (acc. sg. n.) |
| गृह्यताम् | gṛhyatām | let it be taken, take it (passive imperative 3rd sg. of √grah) |
| लोभ | lobha | greed |
| मारात्मके | mārātmake | in one whose nature is to kill (loc. sg.) |
| विश्वासः | viśvāsaḥ | trust (nom. sg. m.) |
| महापङ्के | mahāpaṅke | in deep mud (loc. sg.) |
| व्यापादितः | vyāpāditaḥ | was killed (past participle, causative of vy-ā + √pad) |
| खादितः | khāditaḥ | was eaten (past participle of √khād) |
| सम्मृतः | sammṛtaḥ | died, perished (past participle of sam + √mṛ) |
Pronunciation
kaṅkaṇasya tu lobhena magnaḥ paṅke sudustare |
vṛddhavyāghreṇa samprāptaḥ pathikaḥ sammṛtaḥ ||
Syllables are given for the closing verse (Hit 1.5).
- kaṅkaṇa: ṅ is the "ng" of "sing", ṇ is retroflex: kaṅ-ka-ṇa.
- vyāghraḥ: v-y glide, long ā, aspirated gh: vyāg-hra-ha.
- ṛ is a vowel, a short syllabic r (like the "ri" in "rhythm" said quickly): mṛ-tyu, not mar-tyu.
- A final visarga ḥ is a soft "h" breath that echoes the vowel before it: namaḥ sounds like "nama-ha" (lightly).