The Panchatantra is a niti-shastra, or textbook of niti. The word niti means roughly "the wise conduct of life." Western civilization must endure a certain shame in realizing that no precise equivalent of the term is found in English, French, Latin, or Greek. Many words are therefore necessary to explain what niti is, though the idea, once grasped, is clear, important, and satisfying.
First of all, niti presupposes that one has considered, and rejected, the possibility of living as a saint. It can be practiced only by a social being, and represents an admirable attempt to answer the insistent question how to win the utmost possible joy from life in the world of men.
The negative foundation is security. For example, if one is a mouse, his dwelling must contain recesses beyond the reach of a cat's paw. Pleasant stanzas concerning the necessity of security are scattered throughout the work. Thus:
- The poor are in peculiar need
- Of being secret when they feed;
- The lion killed the ram who could
- Not check his appetite for food.
or again:
- In houses where no snakes are found,
- One sleeps; or where the snakes are bound:
- But perfect rest is hard to win
- With serpents bobbing out and in.
The mere negative foundation of security requires considerable exercise of intelligence, since the world
