The Lion, the Camel and the Jackal

Also known as Chitranga Unt

• 3 minute read
• Ages 8-12
• Panchatantra Stories

A camel named Chitranga was left behind when his caravan moved on, and he wandered into the forest and stayed there, because the grass was good and nothing troubled him.

A lion who ruled that forest found him one day. The lion had three servants who lived off what he killed: a jackal, a crow and a leopard.

The lion had never seen a camel before and was curious rather than hungry. He asked Chitranga how he had come there, listened to the whole story, and then told him he could live in the forest under his protection for as long as he liked.

Chitranga stayed for a long time and was happy.

The lion is injured

Then the lion fought an elephant and came off badly.

He could not hunt. Within a week the four of them were hungry, and the jackal, the crow and the leopard were hungrier than the lion, because they ate last.

The jackal called the other two together.

"There is a great deal of meat walking round this forest," he said, "and it does nothing but eat grass."

"He is under the king's protection."

"Then we will have to make him offer himself," said the jackal.

The offer

They went to the lion together and said that they could not bear to see him starve, and that each of them would offer his own body so the king could eat and recover.

It was a performance, and it was rehearsed.

The crow offered himself first. The jackal immediately objected that a crow was too small to be worth anything, and offered himself instead. The leopard objected that jackal meat was unclean, and offered himself. The crow objected that the leopard was the king's own kin.

Each of them was refused, loudly and at length, by the others.

Chitranga had been standing at the back watching all of this, and it had gone on for some time, and he could see that everyone else had made their offer and he had not.

So he stepped forward and offered himself.

And nobody objected.

Afterwards

The Panchatantra does not soften this one.

The lion had given his word and had not intended to break it. He had said nothing during the whole performance. But he did not stop it either, and when the moment came he was hungry and the offer had been made in front of witnesses, and that was that.

Chitranga's mistake was not trusting the lion. The lion had been honest with him from the start.

His mistake was standing at the back of a conversation he did not understand, and joining in because everyone else was.