The Panchatantra cycle of animal fables, compiled in Sanskrit almost two thousand years ago, brings together the most widespread Hindu tales throughout the world, from China to Ethiopia. Kalila and Dimna is part of it and is undoubtedly one of the most popular works of universal literature. In Europe it circulated, translated from Arabic, from the thirteenth century, and its influence goes from Ramon Llull, Chaucer, Boccaccio or Cervantes to La Fontaine. This formidable version of Ramsay Wood not only modernizes the ancient tales - as the medieval translations did - but combines the major versions of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and even ancient English. Narrated by Wood-and magnificently illustrated-the fables of the wise Bidpai recall the brilliant colors of the Hindu tapestries and reveal themselves once again as a masterpiece: the jovial account of the adventures of noble animals sometimes, often rogues, but always spontaneous, gives us the image of human passions in all their ambivalence.