The Jackal and the Drum
Also known as Gidad aur Dhol
- 2 minute read
- Ages 5-9
- Panchatantra Stories
A hungry jackal named Gomaya was crossing an old battlefield looking for anything at all to eat.
The armies had gone months before and left the usual wreckage behind: broken carts, snapped spears, torn cloth. Nothing edible.
Then he heard a sound that stopped him where he stood.
The noise
It came from a thicket at the edge of the field, and it was enormous.
A deep booming, irregular, sometimes twice in quick succession and then nothing for a while, and then again. It was the loudest thing Gomaya had ever heard and it was very close.
His first thought was that he should leave that country entirely and never come back.
His second thought, which arrived more slowly, was that he was extremely hungry, and that if something in there was big enough to make that noise, it was big enough to have food.
Going closer
He went towards it, which took him a long time, because he stopped at every step.
The booming got louder as he came near, and twice he turned round and started to go back, and twice he made himself turn again.
He got to the edge of the thicket and looked through.
There was a drum lying on its side in the grass, left behind by the army. It was as tall as he was and painted red.
Above it grew a tree, and the wind was moving the branches, and every time a branch came down it struck the drumhead and the drum said what a drum says.
Inside
Gomaya sat and watched it for a while and felt a number of things at once.
Then he went and looked at it properly, and pushed at it, and found that the skin at one end had split.
He got inside.
And the drum was full, because army drums are used to carry things when the army moves, and this one had been packed with grain and dried meat and forgotten in the retreat.
He ate for a week.
Moral of the story
A loud noise is only information about a noise. Gomaya nearly walked away from a week of food because something sounded large.
Questions and answers
- Where was the jackal, and why?
He was crossing an old battlefield looking for food, because he was starving.
- What frightened him?
A deep booming noise coming from a thicket, louder than anything he had heard.
- Why did he go towards it instead of running?
He reasoned that anything big enough to make that noise was big enough to have food, and he was very hungry.
- What was making the sound?
A large drum left behind by the army, struck by a tree branch whenever the wind moved it.
- What did he find inside the drum?
Grain and dried meat, because army drums were used to carry supplies and this one had been packed and forgotten.
Word meanings
- battlefield
- A place where a battle has been fought.
- thicket
- An area where bushes grow closely together.
- irregular
- Not happening at regular or even times.
- retreat
- When an army withdraws from a place.
Questions about The Jackal and the Drum
What is the moral of The Jackal and the Drum?
That fear should be investigated rather than obeyed. The noise was information about wind and a drumhead, and nothing more.
Is the jackal brave in this story?
The Panchatantra is careful about this. He is frightened the whole way and turns back twice. The story treats going anyway as the brave part, not being unafraid.
Why were drums used to carry supplies?
Large army drums were hollow and sturdy, so they were practical containers on the march. That detail is what makes the ending work.
What is the jackal's name?
Gomaya, in the Sanskrit original.