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Description:
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The Mahabharata is an epic poem built around the principal story of the royal family of Kaurava-Pandava cousins. The auxiliary narratives often contain stories told by the characters to support their points of view in the dialogues. The characters in these stories are human as well as animals, the latter endowed with reason and feelings like the humans. The situations are lifelike but the main thrust is on the morals drawn. The first story draws the moral that there are no permanent friends and foes in life. The characters are: a mouse, a cat, a mongoose, an owl and a hunter. The relationship between mouse and cat shifts according to situations of threat and safety facing either. In another story, an ascetic jackal is made minister by a king. The jackal's detractors cause him to be jailed by the king. Released by the repentant king, the jackal prefers to withdraw. A dog living with a sage is frightened when he spots a stronger animal. He first sees a leopard, then a tiger, an elephant and finally a lion. At each turn the sage transforms the dog into a more powerful species. Slowly the dog
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