Kalila wa Dimna — Timeless Animal Fables

Like the beloved Aesop’s Fables, Kalīlah and Dimnah is a collection of animal fables that were written not just for moral instruction to three young princes, who were unruly at the time and had to learn to be wiser rulers, but also for the amusement and reflection of whoever reads them.

The original manuscript contains seventy-eight paintings and many text folios telling the famous tales of the two jackals Kalila and Dimna. Each was clever and intelligent, but of the two Dimna was greedier, more ambitious and manipulative. 

Based on the Panchatantra written by Vidyapati (Bidpai), dating to the 3rd century BCE, the stories spread all over the Middle East in the 8th century after being translated into Arabic by the scholar and state official Ibn al-Muqaffa’ — where they became and remain wildly popular.

Witty, humor’s and philosophical, these fables of vice and virtue are constantly revisited and reimagined by writers and artists across the world.

In this particular folio featured here, we meet the wise leopard. It is called The Leopard's Court - ‘Leopard Bearing Lion's Order to Fellow Judges’.

Within a colourful, plentiful arabesques-cape of flowers, fruit, and cypress trees, an unwavering leopard sits in judgment on the devious jackal Dimna, whose lies and jealousy resulted in the killing of an innocent ox by his friend, the Lion-king. The jackal frenzied the king against the ox, who regretted killing his friend and ordered Dimna to stand trial. In this Folio, an outraged hare turns away from the jackal in disgust. Leopard, depicted as calm and wise, judges the case and Dimna is found guilty and sentenced to death by starvation.