The Proud Snake and the Ants
A huge snake ignores his own wide burrow and forces his way out through a narrow hole. He comes out into the daylight bleeding.
In a certain anthill lived a huge black snake named Atidarpa — "Over-Proud".
One day, instead of using the wide burrow he always used, he tried to come out through another, narrower opening. His body was large and the hole was small; as he forced his way out his skin was scraped and split in many places, and blood ran.
Drawn by the smell of blood from those wounds, ants swarmed onto him from every side. He lashed with his tail, rolled, struck with his hood, and killed a great many of them — but they were beyond counting. Between the pain of his wounds and their biting he was overwhelmed, and in a little while those ants had eaten him.
So it is said: do not set yourself against the many — ants devour even the king of serpents while he still writhes.
बहूनां न विरोद्धव्यो दुर्जेया हि महाजनाः । स्फुरन्तमपि नागेन्द्रं भक्षयन्ति पिपीलिकाः ॥
Moral: Do not set yourself against the many; a multitude is hard to beat — ants devour even the king of serpents while he still writhes.
From the Panchatantra, Book III — Of Crows and Owls.
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