Creighton University

Here is the first of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  After the introduction about Vishnu Sharma, there are nine stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  Only the last, "The Lion and the Carpenter," is new to me.  A carpenter feeds a lion daily on condition that he come alone.  When he brings friends, the carpenter and his wife flee up a tree.  "You broke your promise.  We can't be friends anymore."  The monkey gets his foot caught in the wedge.  The foolish sage has a moneybag, and he lets his disciple guard it while he bathes in the river.  The animals punish the blue jackal severely.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the second of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  Where I have seen a version of monkeys warming fireflies, here it is Gunja fruits that they try to fan into flames.  The version has a great moral: "Never advise fools."  New to me is the story of two parrots.  They receive a king in opposing fashions due to their divergent upbringing.  "The Foolish Friend" here is not a bear but a monkey who attacks a fly on the king's chest with a sword.  The king in this case is severely injured.  Also new is "The Bird with Two Heads."  One head, to spite the other for an insult, eats poisonous fruit.  "The Unlucky Weaver" is new to me and too complex to sum up here.  In yet another, two jackals follow a bull, hoping that stronger animals will kill him and leave something for them.  No luck!  "Greed makes a man blind and foolish."  "The Trapper and the Doves" strangely repeats a story from the first volume.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the third of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  A big change happens in the first story here: the Dimna character persuades the Kalila character to join his plot.  After the death of the bull, the two jackals celebrate.  The fox who has noticed the footprints outside the cave goes back to warn the other animals of the old lion's plot.  Other stories include "Donkey and Lapdog"; DW; and "The Flea and the Bug."  "The Elephant and the Sparrows" is about a group vengeance on an offending elephant.  "The Cunning Jackal" seems to be a repeat of an earlier story of the camel's sacrifice, but turns into a story about the jackal getting the lion to leave a carcass to him.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the fourth of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  The first story presents a servant who influences a king against an enemy, is then appeased by his enemy, and reverses his advice.  Familiar stories here seem to be more Aesop's than Panchatantra's: WC, FS, TH, and AD.  The final stories are new to me.  "The Swan and the Owl" has the latter making noise that ends up getting the former shot.  "The Wise Gander" has two phases.  First the geese do not heed the gander's warning about vines someday allowing a hunter to climb the tree.  The second phase has the trapped birds playing dead and escaping after the unwary hunter throws them down from the tree.  In "The Lion and the Ram," the former fears the latter without reason but finally attacks and overcomes him.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the fifth of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  The second story is new to me.  A sparrow repeatedly urges a monkey to find shelter from the rain.  The monkey is so angered to be given advice that he climbs the tree and destroys the sparrow's nest.  "Lord Indra's Parrot" is a sad tale about the inescapability of death.  "The Foolish Cranes" is a version of "getting a stronger ally to attack one's enemy."  That is, get the mongoose through a trail of fish to the cobra's hollow.  There is an extra twist here.  Originally cranes up in the tree's branches complained about the cobra.  After the mongoose kills the cobra, he kills all the cranes too! In "The Thief's Sacrifice," a thief accompanying four rich priests offers himself to save the priests.  Better that one die than all five!  The closing fables are BW, TB, and LS, the last with allies of fox, jackal, and wolf.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the seventh of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  Most haunting here is the story of two doves.  The male dove obeys his captured wife and jumps into the fire in order to feed the man who has captured her.  Freed by the hunter, the female dove cannot live without her husband and so she also jumps into the fire.  I am again touched by "The Old Man and the Young Wife."  She does not return his affection but one night she hugs him.  He notices that there is a thief behind the curtain.  He thanks the thief and invites him to take whatever he wants!  "The Potter and the King" features a wise king who sends a frightened soldier back to his village to be the potter that he is.  "The Thief and the Shape-shifting Demon" gets too complex for me.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the eighth of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  "The Birds Pick a King" describes a crow's opposition to the appointment of the owl as king of the birds.  The owl will forever hold it against the crow.  In a surprising story to me, a cobra attacks an anthill; the ants then sting him all over and kill him.  "The Bird with the Golden Dung" is new to me.  A poor hunter traps the bird, fears the taxes and suspicions if he continually grows rich from it, and offers it to a king for a one-time reward.  The king agrees until an attendant finds the offer preposterous.  They let the bird go.  It promptly drops golden dung and everyone regrets letting it go.  "The Foolish Frog" is also new to me.  The frog king makes a deal with a cobra, offering one of his enemies every day in a well with a secret passage.  When the cobra has eaten them all, he starts eating the frog king's friends and even threatens the frog king himself.  The king closes the passage, the cobra dies inside the well, and the frog king lives a lonely life.  "The Two Snakes" continues to strike me as unnecessarily complicated and magical.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the ninth of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are ten stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  The first story does a good job of reducing the long story "The War between Crows and Owls" to three pages.  Here DLS has the donkey wearing a tiger's skin.  If you are a blind vulture, do not trust a cat who comes wanting to be your disciple.  I am pleased again by "The Bull and the Goat."  The bull is fleeing a lion and enters a cave where there is a lone goat.  The goat butts and injures the bull.  "I don't fear you.  I fear the lion.  Wait till the lion goes away and I will teach you a lesson."  DS is the last story here.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.

Here is the tenth of ten 16-page boxed pamphlets, 7¼" x 9⅜".  There are eleven stories, each with an explicit moral highlighted apart from the story.  I continue to enjoy "The Lion Makers."  A smart but less educated priest joins three educated priests.  When they come across lion bones, the three educated priests put the lion together and bring him back to life.  The less educated priest climbs a tree.  The lion eats the three human beings he finds as he is brought back to life.  "Common sense is superior to bookish knowledge."  "The Unforgiving Monkey" gets quite complicated.  "The Meddlesome Donkey and the Dog" is surprising.  A vengeful dog does not do his duty of barking at a nighttime thief.  The faithful donkey brays at him.  The thief runs, and the owner awakes to beat the donkey for waking him up!  A lion takes on a cat to rid him of a troublesome mouse.  It works.  Then the lion stops feeding the cat.  The illustrations are in the style of Disney.