The Crows and the Owls

In the southern country was a city called Mahilaropya. Near it stood a huge, many-branched banyan. In it lived Meghavarna, king of the crows, with his household, and he had made that tree as secure as a fortress.

Elsewhere, in a mountain cave, lived Arimardana, king of the owls, with his own people, fortified in his turn. Because of an old enmity he came every night and circled that banyan, and any crow he found outside its nest he killed. Little by little he emptied the tree of crows.

Alarmed, Meghavarna summoned his five ministers — Ujjivi, Sanjivi, Anujivi, Prajivi and Chirajivi — and asked: "Our enemy is strong, energetic, and knows his moment; he comes by night and destroys us. By day we do not know where his fort is. What now — peace, war, marching, holding, dividing, or seeking an ally? Which of the six?"

Ujjivi said: "War with a stronger enemy is unwise; he strikes when he chooses. One who swims against the current is destroyed. Make peace — if life is preserved, everything is preserved."

Sanjivi said: "No. He is cruel, greedy and without principle, and one makes no peace with such a creature; peace made with the faithless breaks at once. War is the answer — with spirit, the small kills the great, as a young lion kills an elephant."

Anujivi said: "He is far stronger and knows no restraint. With him, neither peace nor war — marching away is the fit course."

Prajivi argued for holding: "Let us strengthen our own place and stand fast here. Even a brave man is weak away from his own ground. He who invades another's country without knowing its water, its forts and its fields does not come back."

Chirajivi urged an alliance: "Take shelter with someone strong. He who yields his country before a stronger enemy regains the earth in the end, as Yudhishthira did."

Having heard all five, Meghavarna went to Sthirajivi, his father's old minister, a very aged and shrewd bird. Sthirajivi said: "None of the six will serve. What is left is a stratagem. An enemy you cannot beat by force, beat by division. Listen: pretend to disgrace me, tear at me, and leave me bleeding under this tree; then take your household to another hill. The owls will take me for your enemy, cast out by you, and carry me into their fortress. Once I have their confidence I shall learn the secret of that cave — and then I shall burn it with the owls inside it."

It was done as planned. The owls found the wounded Sthirajivi. One of their old ministers, Raktaksha, cried out: "King! This is an enemy — kill him! Never trust one who was your opponent and now comes as a friend." But pity and vanity took hold of Arimardana, and the other ministers said: "To kill one who has taken refuge is a sin." Raktaksha gave up, said, "You will all destroy this line," took his followers and left the cave.

Sthirajivi settled into the owls' fortress. Every day he brought a dry stick and a straw to the cave mouth — "for my nest" — and the owls were pleased with him. When the heap of fuel was complete, he went to Meghavarna and said: "Now come, with burning brands in your beaks."

In broad daylight, when the owls were blind and helpless, the crows dropped fire into the heap — and Arimardana burned in that cave with all his household.

This is Of Crows and Owls, and sixteen tales are told along the way.

न विश्वसेत्पूर्वविरोधितस्य शत्रोश्च मित्रत्वमुपागतस्य । दग्धां गुहां पश्य उलूकपूर्णां काकप्रणीतेन हुताशनेन ॥

Moral: Never trust an enemy who was once your opponent and now comes as a friend: look at the cave full of owls, burnt out by fire that a crow brought in.

From the Panchatantra, Book III — Of Crows and Owls.