A Comparative Study of Kalīlah wa Dimnah and a Korean Classic Novel

This article compares the Story of the Monkey and the Tortoise in Kalīlah wa Dimnah with the Korean classic novel, Tokki Jeon, in terms of their origins, histories, plots, animal characters, central objects, themes, narrative structures. Kalīlah wa Dimnah is an Arabic animal fable. Tokki Jeon is an animal fable novel compiled between the 17th and the 19th centuries by an unknown person. Although the two literary works originated from the Indian narratives Panchatantra and Jataka, they have their own religious undertones and cultural backgrounds. This article investigates how Indian narratives were introduced to foreign cultural lands and indigenized there.