Wise Parrot Spins Lively Tales from Ancient India
First of all, Shuka Saptati is the original Sanskrit title of this book, not the author. Shuka = parrot and Saptati = seventy (tales) in the ancient classical language of India. Compiled, probably from many earlier sources, by the unknown author, this is a collection of tales organized around the efforts of a parrot to prevent its young mistress from entertaining lovers in the absence of her merchant husband. The parrot pretends to be supportive. It tells one tale each evening to keep her from departing--usually a story of how other illicit couples have come to grief or fallen into embarrassing situations, and how the wife saved herself. Humorous, witty, entertaining, some tales bordering on pornographic. Finally, all ends well. The collection dates between 600 and 1200 A.D. and has been translated into many Asian languages, German and English. This 2000 C.E. translation by A.N.D. Haksar, in a mix of prose and verse as in the original Sanskrit, conveys the simple, lively mood of the tales in modern English. Highly recommended.
