 The earliest examples of "frame stories" and "stories within stories" were in ancient Egyptian and Indian literature, such as the Egyptian Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and Indian epics like the "Ramayana", "Seven Wise Masters", "Hitopadesha" and "Vikram and the Vampire".In Vishnu Sarma's "Panchatantra", an inter-woven series of colorful animal tales are told with one narrative opening within another, sometimes three or four layers deep, and then unexpectedly snapping shut in irregular rhythms to sustain attention.In the epic "Mahabharata", the Kurukshetra War is narrated by a character in Vyasa's "Jaya", which itself is narrated by a character in Vaisampayana's "Bharata", which itself is narrated by a character in Ugrasrava's "Mahabharata".