Once upon a time,far away in a forest 80,000 monkeys lived together.
They had a king who was unusually large,as big as a fawn.He was not only big physically,he was also large in mind.
One day,he advised his monkey troops 'My subjects, there are poisonous fruits in this deep forest, and pond inhabited by demons.
so if you see any unusual fruit or unknown pond,do not eat or drink drink until ypu ask me first'.
Paying close attention to their wish king,all the monkeys agreed to follow his advice.
Later on, they came to an unknown pond. Even though they were all tired out and thirsty from checking out food,no one would drink without first asking the monkey king. So they sat within the trees and on the ground around the pond.
The monkey king asked them, "Did anyone drink the water?"
They replied, "No, your majesty, we followed your instructions." He said, "Well done."
Then he walked along the bank, around the pond. He examined the footprints of the animals that had gone into the water, and saw that none came out again!
So he realized this pond must be possessed by a water demon. The monkey king said , " My dear colleague This pond is possessed by a water demon. Do not anybody go into it."
After a touch while, the water demon saw that none of the monkeys went into the water to drink.
So he rose out of the center of the pond, taking the form of a daunting monster. He had a big blue belly,
a white face with bulging green eyes, and red claws and feet. He said, "Why are you just sitting around? Come into the pond and drink at once!"
The monkey king asked , "Are you the water demon who owns this pond?" "Yes, I am," said the water demon. "Do you eat whoever goes into the water?" asked the king.
"Yes, I do," he answered, "including even birds. I eat them all. And once you are forced by your thirst to return into the pond and drink,I will enjoy eating you, the most important monkey, most of all!" He grinned, and saliva dripped down his hairy chin.
But the monkey king with the well-trained mind remained calm. He said, "I won't allow you to eat me or one one of my followers. And yet, we will drink all the water we want!" The water demon grunted, "Impossible! How will you do that?" The monkey king replied, "Each one of us will drink using bamboo shoots as straws. And you'll not be ready to touch us!"
Of course, anyone who has seen bamboo knows there's an issue . Bamboo grows in sections, one after another, with a knot between each one. Any one section is simply too small, therefore the demon could grab the monkey, pull him under and gobble him up. But the knots make
it impossible to sip through more than one section.The king brought a big bamboo shoot and gave pieces to all the monkeys.Firstly, he took
through it to form the knots disappear and used it to sip water from the pond.
The monkeys started to ship the water into the pond.The demon felt ashemed and hide himself under the water.The king and his subjects had their fill and went to another place
The monkey king was very special, which is why numerous followed him. In the past,
he had practiced goodness and trained his mind with such effort and a spotlight , that he had developed very fine qualities of mind.
The moral is: "Test the water before jumping in." an honest moral told well,showing the intelligence of the monkeys who trick the water demon and drink the water within the pond.
who is the author of Water Demon from panchantra tales?
The panchatantra may be a series of inner-woven colourful tales,mostly fables.According to its introductory narration, these inter-woven are meant for instance ,for the advantages of three princes,
the primary Hindu priciples of niti-"the wise conduct of life "
In a brief introductory narrative-Vishnu Sharma, is introduced as reciting and explaining.
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