Talking Animals

Explorations in an Indian Literary Genre

Authors

  • Patrick Olivelle University of Texas at Austin Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v7i1-3.14

Keywords:

animal fables, Pañcatantra, religion and nature, Sanskrit literature, talking animals

Abstract

Animals are certainly good to think (bonnes a penser), as famously noted by Claude Levi-Strauss, but from the dawn of literature humans have also given them voices so that they can participate vicariously in an anthropomorphized animal linguistic and social world paralleling the human, giving rise to the literary genre of the animal fable. The earliest use of animals in literature was probably as similes. Such allegories abound in the earliest strata of the Rg-Veda. What is interesting in these comparisons for later animal tales is that a particular characteristic is singled out as defining a particular animal and constituting its very nature (svabhava). The association of a particular species with a set of moral and intellectual qualities, with personality traits, plays a central role in later animal fables. But what about talking animals? When do they make their first appearance in the extant corpus of Indian literature? This article will reflect on the religious and cultural backdrop within which the anthropomorphizing habit of Indian animal tales took place in Indian Sanskrit literature.

Author Biography

  • Patrick Olivelle, University of Texas at Austin

    Patrick Olivelle is professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities. Prof Olivelle served as the Chair of the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin from 1994 to 2007. Prior to coming to Texas, Olivelle taught in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, from 1974 to 1991, where he was the Department Chair 1984-90. Olivelle’s current research focuses on the ancient Indian legal tradition of Dharmaśāstra. He has edited and translated the four early Dharmasūtras. He has also prepared a critical edition and translation of the Law Code of Manu (Mānava Dharmaśāstra). In the mid-1990’s Olivelle worked on the late Vedic literature, producing an award-winning translation of the early Upaniṣads, as well as a scholar’s edition of them. His early work was focused on the ascetic and monastic traditions of India. He published several editions, translations, and studies of ascetic texts and institutions. His award-winning book on the āśrama system was published in 1993. Olivelle has won several prestigious fellowships, including Guggenheim, NEH, and ACLS. He was elected Vice President of the American Oriental Society in 2004 and President in 2005.

References

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-- 2002. 'Food for Thought: Dietary Regulations and Social Organization in Ancient India.' 2001 Gonda Lecture. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Reprinted in Olivelle, 2008: 367-92.

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Published

2013-10-08

Issue

Section

First Tantra: Wonder, Monstrosity, Conflict

How to Cite

Olivelle, P. (2013). Talking Animals: Explorations in an Indian Literary Genre. Religions of South Asia, 7(1-3), 14-26. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v7i1-3.14