India, June 20 -- Iran and Israel remain engaged in a bloody missile war threatening to spiral into bigger conflict. The two countries are sworn enemies with differences that seem impossible to overcome. However, in their history lies a shared Indian connection: the Panchatantra tales.

Roughly around the time that Buddha and Mahavira were formulating their respective ideologies in India, the first empire to emerge from the diverse land of Persia or Iran was the Achaemenid empire.

In 550 BCE, Achaemenid empire was founded by the Cyrus II also known as the Cyrus the Great who defeated the Median dynasty and ruled an empire that spanned from Egypt in the south to the Balkans in the north, and up to the Indus River Valley in the east.

Cyru...