Panchatantra: The Bharunda Birds

From The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1925).

The Bharunda Birds

[This story is inserted into The Winning of Friends.]

By a certain lake in the world lived birds called "bharunda birds." They had one belly and two necks apiece.

While one of these birds was sauntering about, his first neck found some nectar.

Then the second said: "Give me half."

And when the first refused, the second neck angrily picked up poison somewhere and ate it. As they had one belly, they died.


"And that is why I say:
Bharunda birds will teach you why
The disunited surely die:
For, single-bellied, double-necked,
They took a diet incorrect.
Thus union is strength."