In this paper, I will examine friendship and the emotions depicted in the ancient narrative text, Pancatantra. Animals were used to convey the stories of the human world and choosing a certain animal to play the role of a specific character in the story is something that seems very selective by society, for example, Lion is generally shown as King. Although animal characters appear as early as the Rgveda (1500-1000 BCE), the Pancatantra (3rd- 4th century) assumes importance because it uses animal characters to convey political and ethical messages. The stories purportedly told by Visnusarman to his three students who were princes of a kingdom called Mahilaropya, force us to think about the relationship in which the animal characters are bound with each other Of interest to me, friendship. Further, we see in many stories of Pancatantra that animal characters were using their emotions to achieve their goals and manipulate their friends for their personal benefit. I will also try to explain how friendship as an emotional bond and social bond was important at the time when Pancatantra got written with the help of other prescriptive texts like Manusmriti and Kamasutra.
