A storyteller's bird's-eye view of the fabulous travels of the 8th Century Arabic prose classic •KALILA WA DIMNA•, beginning from the Buddha's JATAKA TALES in India circa 450 BCE until its arrival 2000 years later in England, translated in 1570 CE from the Italian by Sir Thomas North as •THE MORAL PHILOSOPHIE OF DONI•

1. The Kalila & Dimna Story
How an ancient ‘book’ left home
by Ramsay Wood
ICR London Seminar on The Power of Stories March 2009
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2. 1
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3. 547 Jatakas
Animal Story
=Template
Circa 450 BCE
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5. 1- (Navajo) ‘At the time when men and
animals were all the same and spoke the
same language...’
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6. 547 Jatakas
Animal Story
=Template
Circa 450 BCE
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9. 2
1
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11. 2
1 3
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16. Four Key Characters
Bull, King Lion & the Jackal Brothers
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19. Abassid Caliph
al-Mansur
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20. Karataka ('Horribly Howling') and
Damanaka (‘Victor) = Sanskrit (1st Tantra)
Karirak ud Damanak = Pahlavi title
Kalila wa Dimna = Arabic title
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21. 2
1 3
4
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33. 2
1 3
4
5
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34. Thomas North, 1570
Philosophie of the
wise auncient
Fathers:
A work first compiled
in the Indian tongue,
and aftervvardes
transferred into divers
and sundrie other
languages:
As the Persian,
Arabian, Hebrue,
Latine, Spanish, and
Italian: and now
reduced into our
vulgar speeche.
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36. K & D Animal Stories (oral, manuscript & book)
450ish BCE, Buddha/Disciples
• Jataka Tales —
• Panchatantra — 200ish BCE, Visnu Sarma
• Karirak ud Damanak — 570ish CE, Burzouy/Bidpai
• Kalila wa Dimna —750ish CE, Ibn al-Muqaffa/Bidpai
~
~
~
1570 CE, T. North
• Moral Philosophy of Doni —
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40. Abassid Caliph
al-Mansur
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41. Thomas North, 1570
Philosophie of the
wise auncient
Fathers:
A work first compiled
in the Indian tongue,
and aftervvardes
transferred into divers
and sundrie other
languages:
As the Persian,
Arabian, Hebrue,
Latine, Spanish, and
Italian: and now
reduced into our
vulgar speeche.
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42. Saturday, 4 April 2009 42

43. quot;Surely reader, this book shall be a
looking glass for thee, wherein thou shalt most
lively beholde the daily and present daungers
and decytes of mans most miserable lyfe and
the eyes of thy understanding shall be made
open to discerne the flatteries of desceytfull
men, and the wisdome of this most guileful
worlde: by means whereof ye may easily blot
out many effects of this (alas) our crooked age.
This precious gem of knowledge, who so shall
lodge it in the secrecie of his memory, shall
never loose it but shall rather augment and
increase it with age in such sort that he shall
win a marvellous commodotie. . . .
Thomas North, 1570
For to find so riche a treasure and not to know
how to take it and laye it up; is rightly to follow
him, that finding a masse of gold and silver, had
not the wyt to take it and carry it away.quot;
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44. ramzwud@gmail.com
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