Pingalaka the Lion and Sanjivaka the Bull
A lion and a bull become the closest of friends — until a jackal who wants his old job back begins to whisper to each of them.
In the city of Mahilaropya lived a merchant's son named Vardhamana. He reasoned: "Even a man with money should earn more. The man with wealth has friends, kinsmen, standing; he alone is called wise." So he yoked his two bulls, Sanjivaka and Nandaka, to a cart and set out to trade towards Mathura.
On the bank of the Yamuna, in the forest called Yamunakachchha, the powerful Sanjivaka sank a leg in the mud, the yoke snapped, and he collapsed. Vardhamana grieved and waited three nights, but the bull would not rise. Then his companions said: "Master, why risk the whole caravan in a jungle full of lions and tigers for the sake of one bull? A wise man does not destroy much to save a little." Vardhamana posted guards and moved on; the guards fled in fear and reported that Sanjivaka had died.
But Sanjivaka had not died. Yamuna water and soft grass brought him slowly to his feet. Grazing on green shoots he grew sleek and strong, and roamed the forest free, bellowing — for what fate protects survives unguarded, and what fate abandons perishes even at home.
In that forest reigned a lion named Pingalaka. One day, parched with thirst, he came to the Yamuna, heard Sanjivaka's deep, unfamiliar bellow, and froze. Without drinking he retreated beneath a great banyan and sat down, ringed about by his own fear.
With him were two jackals, Karataka and Damanaka — sons of a former minister, long since out of office. Damanaka said: "Brother Karataka, our master went to drink and came back dry, and now he sits stock-still. Something has happened." Karataka warned him off: "The man who meddles in another's business dies like the monkey who pulled out the wedge" — and told him that story.
Damanaka would not be put off. After a long argument about the art of service, he went to the lion — and here begins the tale of The Loss of Friends, in which a greedy, whispering jackal breaks apart the deep friendship of a lion and a bull.
वर्धमानो महान्स्नेहः सिंहगोवृषयोर्वने । पिशुनेनातिलुब्धेन जम्बुकेन विनाशितः ॥
Moral: In the forest, the great and growing love between a lion and a bull was destroyed by a slanderous, greedy jackal.
From the Panchatantra, Book I — The Loss of Friends.
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