The Panchatantra Project
Panchatantra – A project
It was sometime during the Covid a thought came to my mind about starting a Podcast. I have been a listener to Podcast for a while. It was probably a lost love that I rediscovered again.
As a kid, I remember listening to BBC Hindi News under the night sky. Also I remember listening to Hello Farmaish ( हेलो फर्माइश) with my mother in the afternoons after the school. I still remember a road trip where we only listened to Geetmala by Ameen Saini ( I was not really a fan of Geetmala but came to know about it then)
I did write about radio as well as Podcasts earlier as well. Somehow audio connects with me much more that visual. I generally forget the movies that I see in some time but the whatever I listen or read remains with me for a little longer time.
Anyways like everyone my mind was not stable and I was looking at the stats of Covid cases going up and up during the second wave. Here is twitter thread that I used to put out. No hospital beds, no medicine, no oxygen cylinder and mayhem everywhere. In that time not sure how but I discovered English translation of Panchatantra by Arthur W Ryder on Archive.com and I started Panchatantra On Podcast with my basic setup and continued since. Now I would like to warn all of you that neither I have a baritone that you would like to listen (initially it felt really weird to listen to my own voice) nor I have been able to splurge money on buying a good microphone so far.
A little background on Panchatantra
Panchatantra’s history is not very clear but it is believed to be written by a scholar called Vishnusharma in order to teach three kids of a king of the city called Mahilaropya. Now where is the city in contemporary world is not known and tere are different suggestion given by historians.
Many believe that this was composed in Sanskrit in Kashmir in 300CE. But it draws back references to Rig Veda and Upanishads that were composed much earlier. It is known that it was translated into Pahlavi in 550 CE by Barzoi on the orders of Sassanian ruler Khusru. It was also translated into Syriac, Arabic, Persian, Turki, Ethiopic, Malay, Latin, German, English. All this happened by 15th Century and the German translation was one of the first books to be printed after Bible. Hitopdesa also seems to be retelling of Panchatantra that was composed in 13th Century.
The Podcast
I have narrated about 69 episodes so far and over the years. I still need to finish it. There are more stories that I will have to cover.
But for now like it is said listen to it where ever you get your podcasts 🙂