Hitopadesha

Nepalese manuscript of the Hitopadesha, c.1800

Hitopadesa is a collection of short stories. It was originally written in Sanskrit. It is very similar to another Sanskrit book named Panchatantra. It contains fables with both animal and human characters.

The book was written many centuries before. Its stories are now well known in different parts of the world.

The work has been translated into most of the major languages of the world. An English translation, rendered by Sir Edwin Arnold [1], then principal of Puna College, Pune, India, was published in London in 1861.