DEAR SON, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU? 99
highly aware of difference as a categorical classification system. An il-
lustration is an early and very popular tale, "Indigo Jackal" (story
I-n), which recognizes that the capacity to harm is inimical to power:
There was a certain jackal, Candarava by name, who lived in a jungle.
Once, overcome by hunger, he entered a town and was attacked by
dogs. He took shelter in a vat of indigo solution. When at last he man-
aged to steal back to the jungle, he found that his body was colored a
deep blue. Because of this blue color, the lion, tiger, wolf, and other
denizens of the jungle did not recognize him as a jackal. They thought
that,he was a strange animal, and-being afraid-wanted to run away.
For it is said, "The wise person who desires his own welfare does not
trust someone whose behavior, family and prowess are unknown."
But Candarava realized they were afraid of him and said: "O wild
animals! Why do you flee in terror? I have been created by Indra to
rule over the animals of the jungle, who have no ruler. Candarava is
my name and you can all live in happiness under my rule." Having
heard his words, the hosts of wild animals-lions, tigers, leopards,
monkeys, hares, deer, jackals and the rest-bowed down to him and
he made the lion his minister, the tiger his chamberlain, the leopard
the keeper of his betel-box, the elephant his doorkeeper and the
monkey his umbrella bearer. But those jackals who were his own
kind were all expelled from the kingdom. And while he was thus en-
joying the splendor of the kingdom, the lions and the rest, having
killed wild animals, laid them down before him. And he, in accor-
dance to dharma, distributed the flesh to them.
While time passed in this way, one day in the assembly hall,
having heard the chorus of voices of jackals howling in the vicinity,
the hairs on his body stood, and he leapt up and howled with them.
The lions and the rest, having heard this, realized that he was a jackal,
bowed their heads in shame: "We have been deceived by a jackal,
therefore let it be killed." Hearing that, he tried to flee, but was torn
to pieces by the tiger and died.^40
Two significant themes here are prevalent throughout Pancatantra:
first the ten~ion between the claim to kingship and the responsibility
to the subjects for a just rule, and second the danger posed to kingship
by treacherous and conniving forces. The latter make the former un-
tenable. Hence, even though the jackal is a "just" king, his duplicity
creates a fissure that cannot be overcome. This skeptical outlook on