칼릴라와 딤나, 판차탄트라, 이솝우화의 공통이야기 연구

A Study on Common Stories of Kalīlah wa Dimnah, Panchatantra, and Aesop’s Fables

Focusing on plot and animal characters, motif and material, teachings and literary structure, this paper compares three similar fables: the story of a donkey which is cheated by a jackal twice in Kalilah wa Dimnah, the story of long ears and dusty in Panchatantra, and the story of lion, fox, and deer in Aesop’s Fables. These three stories are very similar to each other in many points, so it can be supposed that they have the same origin. The story of lion, fox, and deer in Aesop’s Fables is very different from other stories of the same book in terms of its structure and length. The story is assumed to have come from Kalilah wa Dimnah, or Panchatantra. Inspite of the similarities with Panchatantra in delicate descriptions of animal characters and the conflicts between the animal characters, it seems to have come from Kalilah wa Dimnah, a relatively later foreign literature than Panchatantra. If it came from a piece of foreign literature written much earlier, it could have been harmonious with other pieces of the book in its length and structure.