Between Wisdom and Normativity: Rhetorics of Disability in the Panchatantra

Abstract

This paper explores the rhetorics of disability in the Panchatantra, a foundational text of ancient Indian literature that offers a surprisingly nuanced engagement with physical and cognitive difference. In contrast to the dominant discourses of its time — which often cast disability as divine retribution, moral failing, or allegorical symbol — the Panchatantra opens with a story about

intellectual disability not to stigmatize or exclude, but to educate and empower. The three “blockheaded” princes are not banished but taught through stories, reflecting an early vision of inclusive pedagogy and affirming the value of cognitive diversity. This approach resonates with contemporary frameworks such as inclusive education and the neurodiversity movement.

Beyond cognitive disability, the text engages with a wide spectrum of bodily difference — from blind sages to physically marked animals and humans. These figures are not merely background characters but narrative agents, suggesting that disability was not invisible or irrelevant to early Indian storytelling. However, the Panchatantra remains embedded in its socio-historical context and cannot fully escape the ableist tropes of its era. Disability is at times equated with moral deficiency, used to signal deception, or reduced to a narrative device. This paper reads these contradictions as indicative of a broader cultural tension: between the impulse to include and the pressure to conform to normative ideals of ability.

By offering a close reading of selected stories, this study positions the Panchatantra as a text that is at once radical and regressive, progressive yet problematic. It is not simply a moral fable, but a rich archive of how early Indian thought contended with questions of difference, agency, and inclusion. In doing so, it invites us to recognize disability not as a modern concern but as a longstanding axis of ethical and political thought — one that continues to challenge, unsettle, and enrich our literary and cultural imagination.