The Sparrow and the Elephant
Also known as Chidiya aur Haathi
- 3 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Panchatantra Stories
A pair of sparrows had a nest in a tamarind tree with eggs in it, nearly ready.
A rogue elephant came through the forest in the hot season, half mad with the heat, tearing at whatever was in front of him. He put his trunk round a branch of the tamarind and pulled it down, and the nest and the eggs went with it.
Asking for help
The hen sparrow sat on the ground beside the wreck of the nest and would not move.
Her mate said what people say, which was that there was nothing to be done about an elephant.
"I am not asking you to fight him," she said. "I am asking three people for one small thing each."
She went first to a woodpecker who was a friend of hers, and told her what had happened.
"I cannot fight an elephant."
"I know. I want you to bring the frog."
Then she went to a fly, who could not fight an elephant either, and asked her to do one thing at one moment.
Then she went to a frog who lived by a pit at the far end of the forest, and explained the whole plan, and the frog listened and said it would work.
The three things
They found the elephant asleep in the middle of the afternoon.
The fly went first. She flew close to his ear and sang there, softly and steadily, the way a fly does when it wants something to stay still. The elephant, half asleep, found the sound pleasant and shut his eyes to listen to it.
The woodpecker came down while his eyes were closed and did the one thing a woodpecker can do better than anything else in the forest.
The elephant came up roaring and blind.
He crashed about for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, and by then he was desperate for water, and could not find any, and could not see.
The frog
And from the far end of the forest, near the pit, a frog began to call.
It is the sound of water. Every animal in India knows it.
The elephant turned towards it and went, as fast as a blind elephant can go, straight towards the croaking, and the frog kept calling until the last moment and then stopped and got out of the way.
The elephant went into the pit.
And a sparrow, a woodpecker, a fly and a frog stood at the edge of it, none of whom could have moved a stone.
Moral of the story
She never asked anyone to be brave or strong. She asked four small creatures to each do the one thing they were already good at.
Questions and answers
- What did the elephant do to the sparrows?
He pulled down the branch holding their nest, destroying the nest and their eggs.
- What did the hen sparrow say when told nothing could be done?
That she was not asking anyone to fight an elephant, only asking three people for one small thing each.
- What did the fly do?
She sang softly by the elephant's ear so he closed his eyes to listen.
- What did the woodpecker do?
She struck while his eyes were closed, blinding him.
- How did the frog finish it?
She croaked from the edge of a pit. The blind, thirsty elephant followed the sound of what he thought was water and fell in.
Word meanings
- tamarind
- A large tropical tree with sour brown pods.
- rogue
- An animal that has left the herd and become dangerous.
- desperate
- In such need that you will try anything.
- croaking
- The deep sound a frog makes.
Questions about The Sparrow and the Elephant
What is the moral of The Sparrow and the Elephant?
That planning beats strength, and that the right question is not who is strong but who can do one useful thing.
Why does the plan need four animals?
Each stage depends on the one before it. The fly makes him close his eyes, the woodpecker blinds him, the blindness makes him thirsty and helpless, and the frog uses the thirst.
Is this story too violent for children?
The blinding is stated in one indirect line and nothing is described. It is a standard Indian schoolbook tale for ages six and above.
Which book of the Panchatantra is this from?
The first book, Mitra Bheda, told as an example inside a longer story about how the weak can defeat the strong.