Yesterday we told the story of the creation of chess and then backgammon as part of a challenge between India and Iran. There was another "cultural exchange" between the two worth mentioning (and was touched on here a few years ago).
The Panchatantra is an ancient Sanskrit collection of animal fables, written down by an anonymous author from stories preserved by oral tradition. It was enormously popular in India, and consists of five frame stories (Panchatantra means "Five Treatises"), each of which has fables that contribute to the main theme. The theme in many is the duty that a leader has to a people.
When Khosrow learned about the Panchatantra, he sent his physician Borzuya to India to make a copy of it. Why a physician? Because what Khosrow heard was that in India was something that could raise the dead.
(Note: yesterday we learned of Khosrow's advisor Borzogmehr. Some think Borzogmehr and Borzuya are thew same person, and in fact Borzuya can be a shortened form of Borzogmehr. Other sources say they were two different men.)
Borzuya sailed to India and inquired about the "plant"; he learned it was actually a book, the Panchatantra. The ruler of India did not allow him to make a copy, but Borzuya was allowed to read it in the palace. Borzuya would read a story each day, then at night in his room he would write out what he had memorized and send what he wrote back to Iran.
Khosrow's reaction to reading the fables was to say the book "has given my soul new life." In a sense, therefore, it brought something back to life.
It's refreshing to talk about a ruler without talking about war. Tomorrow let's see what else Khosrow might have done culturally.