Vishnu Sarma was the author of the anthropomorphic political treatise called Panchatantra.

He lived in Benares at around 200 BC. He was a scholar in Sanskrit and the official Guru of the then princes of Kasi. He started writing down Panchatantra to teach political science to his royal young disciples. The Panchatantra is the oldest collection of Indian fables surviving today.

There was a large thriving city called Mahilaropya in the southern parts of our great country. There ruled a philanthropic, just and good ruler with the name of Amarashakti. He had no limit of money collected through just means, hillocks of precious gems and gold coins, but one sadness always used to inflict him, and that was that all is sons were complete fools. Though he had named them against their qualities - Bahushakti (the one with abundant power), Ugrashakti (the one with passionate* strength) and Anantashakti (the one with limitless strength) but that did not help them get over their abysmal intelligence and they remained asinines, without a shred of wisdom and consummate foolish.

The king called all his ministers and courtiers for consultation. At that moment, there were more than five hundred salaried teachers in his kingdom, a rarity in those days where teachers had to live on alms. But there was not one amongst them who could provide the correct education to the princes. After a lot of deliberation, a minister called Sumati (the one with the correct wisdom) suggested to appoint Acharya Vishnusharma as the official instructor for the princes. Vishnusharma was known to be a savant in all the shastras and the theory of politics and diplomacy.

Acting on the suggestion, the king called Acharya Vishnusharma and declared that if he is able to make his sons into able administrators, he would gift him a hundred villages and gold without bound. The humble teacher laughed and replied, "Oh King! I do not sell my education. I have no desire of any gift. You have called me with respect and deference, therefore I pledge to make your sons into able administrators within 6 months. If I fail to fulfill my pledge, I would change my name." The king happily gave the responsibility of the three princes to him and continued with his work. Vishnusharma, however, realised that it was more difficult than he had thought to teach his new students through conventional means, and there was a need of a creative way of teaching. Therefore he made many short stories, each with a lesson, and tied them in 5 parts, called tantras. This collection, that has attained fame over centuries, is called Panchatantra.

The five tantras in the book are 1) Mitrabhed 2)Mitrasamprapti 3) Kakolookeeyam 4) Labdhapranasham and 5) Apareekshitkarakam. After listening and working on these stories, all the three princes became completely educated in politics and became able administrators.

Indian writers | Indian literature