Misrepresentation of Gender in Selected Panchatantra Tales

Abstract

The research article on Vishnu Sharma’s Panchatantra wanted to prove that some tales are gender biased narratives. ‘Panchatantra’ is a collection of fables written by Vishnu Sharma in Sanskrit language. The book consists of five parts and it teaches the five essential skills in life. It is somewhat similar to the ancient text Chanakya’s Needhi, which provides a straight forward perspective towards human life. These stories were specially written for the princes who will be cornated as kings in future. Since these tales teaches morality, the Panchatantra tales are widely being read by the children around the world. In that case, it is the responsibility of the author to provide an unbiased text to its readers. Unfortunately, Pandit Vishnu Sharma has projected women as wicked, evil or a submissive home maker. The main aim of this paper is to delineate how male characters are represented as symbol of power and wisdom, whereas women characters are bound to be weaker one, scurrilous, seductive and untrustworthy in nature.