The Elephants and the Hares
Also known as Chandra Sarovar
- 3 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Panchatantra Stories
There was a drought, and a herd of elephants who had never come that way before began using a lake in the middle of a warren of hares.
They meant no harm at all. They simply walked to the water twice a day, several hundred of them, straight across the ground the hares lived under.
After the first week a great many burrows had collapsed and a great many hares had not come out of them.
The council
The hares met and could think of nothing.
You cannot argue with an elephant. You cannot fight one. You cannot move a warren in a fortnight.
Then a small hare named Lambakarna stood up and said he would go and speak to the elephant king himself, and that everyone should leave it to him.
"They will step on you," said an older hare.
"Not if I am standing somewhere they cannot step," said Lambakarna.
On the hill
He went out at dusk and climbed a heap of rocks near the lake, high enough to be out of reach, and waited for the herd.
When the elephant king came down to drink, Lambakarna called to him from the top of the rocks.
"I am the ambassador of the moon," he said.
The elephant king stopped.
"The moon has sent me. You are drinking from the lake that belongs to her, and trampling the hares who are under her protection, and she is not pleased about it. Go and look at her in the water tonight and see for yourself."
The water
The elephant king went down to the edge of the lake after dark.
The lake was very still, and the moon lay in it, whole and bright and perfectly clear.
"Now bow to her," said Lambakarna.
The elephant lowered his enormous head and touched the water with the end of his trunk.
And the moon broke apart.
It shattered into a hundred pieces of light and shook and scattered across the whole surface of the lake, and the elephant king stepped back very fast indeed.
"You see," said Lambakarna. "She is trembling with anger."
The herd left that country the following morning and did not come back.
Moral of the story
Lambakarna did not lie about anything the elephant could check. He simply arranged for him to see something and told him what it meant.
Questions and answers
- Why were the elephants a danger to the hares?
Hundreds of them crossed the warren twice a day to reach the lake, collapsing the burrows underneath.
- Why could the hares not solve the problem normally?
You cannot argue with or fight an elephant, and a whole warren cannot be moved in a fortnight.
- Where did Lambakarna stand to speak?
On a heap of rocks near the lake, high enough that no elephant could reach or step on him.
- What did he claim to be?
The ambassador of the moon, sent because the elephants were drinking from her lake and harming hares under her protection.
- What convinced the elephant king?
He touched the still water with his trunk and the moon's reflection shattered, which Lambakarna said was the moon trembling with anger.
Word meanings
- drought
- A long period with no rain.
- warren
- A group of connected burrows where rabbits or hares live.
- burrow
- A hole in the ground made by an animal to live in.
- ambassador
- Someone sent to speak on behalf of another.
Questions about The Elephants and the Hares
What is the moral of The Elephants and the Hares?
That cleverness can move something far bigger than you. The smallest animal in the story solved a problem that force could never have solved.
Why does the trick work so well?
Because Lambakarna never asks the elephant to take anything on trust. He shows him the reflection breaking, which really does happen, and only supplies the interpretation.
What does the hare's name mean?
Lambakarna means 'long-eared' in Sanskrit.
Is this story good for teaching about reflections?
Yes. It is a natural way into talking about why a reflection breaks when water is disturbed, and how the same fact can be explained truthfully or misleadingly.