Bidpai

Bidpai, or Pilpai, supposed to be the author of a collection of Hindu fables, which have been widely known for many centuries, and which have been translated into more languages than any other writings except the Scriptures. The original source of the fables is the Pantchatantra or Five Sections, an old Indian collection in Sanscrit. The materials of the Pantchatantra were worked up in the Hitopadesa (also in Sanscrit) or Book of Salutary Instruction, and became more widely known in Europe than the original. Of the translations may be mentioned those into Pehlvi in the sixth century, and another from the Pehlvi translation into Arabic, which became the medium of conveying these fables into Europe, and in which the author is first called Bidpai. The first English translation appeared in 1570.