The Hunter and the Doves: A Hitopadesha Story with Moral
Quick answer: The Hunter and the Doves retold in full: a flock caught in a net flies off with it together, and their king insists a mouse free his followers first. The Hitopadesha moral.
A flock of doves comes down on scattered rice under a banyan tree against their king's advice, and the net closes over all of them at once. The Hunter and the Doves opens the first book of the Hitopadesha, Mitralabha, and its dove king Chitragriva is the collection's model of a leader.
The story
On the bank of the Godavari stood a great silk-cotton tree, and in it lived a crow who watched the road. One evening he saw a hunter come with a net and a basket, spread the net under a banyan in the field, scatter rice over it, and hide. The crow decided to eat nothing that night. Then a flock of doves flew over, led by a king called Chitragriva, Speckled-Neck, and the doves saw the rice.
'Wait,' said Chitragriva. 'Rice in a field with no farmer is a question, not a meal. Who scattered it, and why?' But the flock was hungry and the rice was white on the dark earth, and they dropped down all together. The net closed. They beat their wings against it and cried out, and the hunter rose from the grass smiling.
Chitragriva did not flap. 'Listen to me. Blaming each other feeds no one. On my word, every one of you take the mesh above you in your beak and fly. We rise together or we die here.' They rose. The net went up with them like a grey cloud, and the hunter ran beneath it with his face turned up until it crossed the river and he could follow no further. The crow followed, curious.
Chitragriva led them to a hill where his friend, a mouse named Hiranyaka, lived in a fortress of a hundred holes. 'Friend, come out and cut us free.' The mouse ran to his king and began to gnaw at the mesh around Chitragriva's own feet. 'No,' said the dove king. 'Free my people first. I brought them here; I go last.' The mouse argued that his teeth might tire. 'Then let them tire on me.' Hiranyaka bit through every knot in the net, one dove after another, and the king's last, and the flock flew home light, and the crow in the tree above made up his mind to become the mouse's friend, which is another story.
The moral, and what it actually means
The Hitopadesha states two lessons: that unity lifts what no single bird could move, and that a true leader takes the last share of rescue. The second is the one worth dwelling on. Chitragriva was right about the rice and was overruled, and the story gives him no moment of reproach. His authority after the net comes from refusing to be freed first.
Where the tale sits and why it has lasted
It is the opening tale of Mitralabha, the first book of the Hitopadesha, and the same episode begins the Panchatantra's second book, where the watching crow becomes one of the Four Friends. It has lasted because it turns a trap into a demonstration. The net that catches the doves becomes the thing they lift, and the reader sees cooperation as a physical fact before anyone names it a virtue.
For young readers and classrooms
From about six upward.
Write your own
The engine is the leader who is overruled and then leads anyway. Let your protagonist give the right advice and be ignored, then refuse to say so and turn the disaster into a shared action. The scene where they insist on going last is where the character is made; give it dialogue, not narration.
What writers can take from this
- For readers: the crow's decision to eat nothing is the first wise act in the tale; he is the reader's stand-in throughout.
- For teachers: children can act the net-lift with a sheet and then debate who should be freed first.
- For teachers: read The Four Friends from the Panchatantra next to see what the watching crow does with what he saw.
- For writers: let the leader be right early and silent about it later; earned authority is quieter than vindication.
- For writers: end by pointing to the next story. The crow's resolution is a door left open.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a leader's warning is ignored, disaster follows, and instead of blaming anyone the leader turns the trap itself into the means of escape, then insists on being rescued last. Let a bystander watch and decide something about their own life because of it.
Questions
What is the moral of The Hunter and the Doves?
Unity accomplishes what no individual can, and a true leader is freed last. The doves lift the net together, and Chitragriva refuses to be cut loose before his followers.
Which Hitopadesha book is The Hunter and the Doves from?
It opens the first book, Mitralabha, the Gaining of Friends. The same episode begins the Panchatantra's second book and leads into The Four Friends.
Is The Hunter and the Doves suitable for children?
Yes, from about six. Nobody is hurt, the net-lift is thrilling, and the dove king's insistence on going last is a lesson children understand at once.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.