Beyond the Monkey and the Crocodile: Faunal Friends in the <i>Pañcatantra</i>

The article focuses on the second section of the Pañcatantra, one of the most popular texts from ancient India, to discuss the understanding of friendship as represented through the relationship amongst four rather diverse animals. Friendship is deliberately cultivated through courteous behaviour, the sharing of food and conversation. What is more, it is not simply instrumental—yet, when there is a crisis, friends bond together to save one another. In the process, they outwit those who are apparently far more powerful. Do such stories provide insights into how ordinary people may have responded to their rulers, surviving by staying beneath the radar? And do these present a contrast to the more hierarchical relationship between the ruler and the mitra envisaged in the Arthaśāstra?