Sanskrit Subhashitas

Preface

If there is a language on the earth, dead or living, which may preeminently deserve, by its compressibility of thought, richness of expression, and euphony of words, to be entitled the Language of Poets , it is undoubtedly Sanskrit. The Sanskrit writers cultivated poetry to such an extent , that every work, whether on the philosophy of the soul , or on the theory of Music and Dance, on a battle deciding the fate of the Country for a thousand years to come and shedding the blood of millions of human beings, or on the prosaic sacrifice of an animal offered to appease the hungry demons or the reluctant gods, came to be written in verse. Logic and grammar no less than the art and science of medicine, were thought worthy of being written in verse. Shortness and capability of being easily committed to memory were the chief objects in preferring verse to prose as regards the subjects for which poetry as such had no sympathy. But real poetry was by no means not neglected and among other kinds , epigrammatic poetry received special attention. The Panchatantra is full of short epigrammes on all possible topics relating to humanity viewed in all possible aspects. Thousands of couplets and stanzas embodying in the most laconic style - the choicest thoughts of serious as well as humorous minds , are floating on the surface of what is called learned conversation among our country-men , and a man is not considered learned, and perhaps rightly, unless he is able to repeat some celebrated saying of a poet or a dramatist illustrating either side of a question that may form the subject of conversation in which he is taking part. And though very few of these popular sayings can be verified as the productions of known authors,they are nevertheless greedily learnt by heart by the generality of Shastries (scholars of Sanskrit Language), and may be heard repeated by them in the course of their conversation. As they are very generally used among the well informed and well read of the passing generation of Shastris, they may freely be described as containing a faithful reflection of the modes of thoughts and of the sentiments of the Indian mind busy in a civilization that is now in the state of transition. Not infrequently , these epigrammatic pieces serve as authorities with the ignorant classes, to whom every thing written in the sacred tongue has the authority of Shastras.

It is trusted that what is said above will be sufficient excuse for placing before the public the following collection of 'SUBHASHITAS' . The collection is arranged under various heads and some times sayings both praising and censuring a custom or a state of things are separately given. It is one of the characteristics of subhashita poetry that, coming as it does from various hands, it is both one sided and exhaustive - one sided when viewed only in parts, and exhaustive when viewed as a whole. The reader will doubtless remember the shatakas of Bhaartrihari, who writing in praise of pleasures of the company of young women will raise them to highest heaven; but speaking of indifference to the pleasures of the world will almost in the same breath send his angels to the lowest depth of bottomless perdition. The same may be said of the epigrammatic verses of the Panchatantra, the interlocutors in which are never at loss to support their conflicting views by authoritative verses either quoted from old writers or composed for the occasion by the author. Both sides of every subject touched by the subhashitas are well, some-times perhaps too well, illustrate and the truth always lies between the two extremes.

(The above preface is from a book "SUBHASHITA RATNAKARA" -a collection of witty and epigrammatic sayings in Sanskrit -complied and edited by KRISHNA SHASTRI BHATAVADEKAR - published in the year 1888. The book belonged to my Grandfather , who was a Sanskrit scholar. I inherited the book from my father and all the Subhashitas to be posted by me are from this book, which is in Sanskrit. The translation of the Subhashitas has been done by me to the best of my ability. As I do not possess deep knowledge of Sanskrit, I may be excused of any discrepancies in the translation, if any. I hope that my humble effort will be appreciated by discerning readers going through my blog.Your suggestions in the matter are most welcome. Many thanks for your patronage.)

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Sanskrit Subhashitas

Friday, 14 September 2012

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