The Hitopadesa (Penguin Classics) Page 19
The Skandhopaneya peace do call.
(130) It should be known that real peace
Comes only in four categories:
Friendship, mutual obligations,
Gifts, and marital relations.
(131) In my view there is but one
Peace: it is through presents won.
All the other types will be
Lacking in true amity.
(132) A stronger enemy force will not
Withdraw till it has something got.
Apart from gifts, it’s clear to see,
A way to peace there cannot be.’
‘Listen to me, first,’ said the goose.
(133) “This is mine, and this is not”—
Thus do the small-minded see.
The large-hearted have always thought
The world itself a family.15
‘Furthermore,
(134) As dirt to see the wealth of others;
And wives of other men as mothers;
In creatures all, yourself reflected—
Who sees thus is the man perfected.16
‘Your Honour is great-hearted as well as wise,’ said the swan king. ‘Please advise me what I should do now.’
‘Ah, why do you speak like this,’ said Farsighted the vulture,
(135) ‘The mind will fail, the body break,
This frame will perish any day.
Who indeed will for its sake,
Go counter to the righteous way?
(136) ‘Fleeting, as the moon’s reflection
In water, is all life’s confection.
This being well understood,
One must always do what’s good.
(137) Perceiving this world to be
Like a mirage, transitory,
With the good keep company
For virtue and for felicity.
‘So let that indeed be done. That is my opinion. For,
(138) A thousand times one may recourse
To sacrifices of the horse,
But in a balance this compare
With the worth that truth does bear.
And truth is always found to be
Greater than such ceremony.
Therefore, let there be made between these two kings the golden peace, of which truth is the touchstone.’
‘I agree,’ said Knowall. Minister Farsighted was thereafter honoured by King Goldegg with gifts of ornaments and garments. Greatly pleased, he took the goose to meet the peacock king. On the vulture’s advice. King Dapple spoke to Knowall with great respect and generosity, and sent him back to Goldegg after accepting the peace which had been proposed.
‘Sire,’ said Farsighted, ‘our purpose has been accomplished. Let us now go back and return to our own home in the Vindhyā mountain.’ Thereafter they all returned to their own land and obtained whatever their hearts desired.
‘Tell me,’ said Viṣṇu Śarma, ‘what more shall I relate to you?’
‘By your grace we have come to understand affairs of state in all their aspects,’ the princes replied. ‘We are very happy indeed.’
‘If that is so,’ said Viṣṇu Śarma, ‘then may this too come to be:
(139) May peace and joy forever be
With all the kings in victory.
May good men be free of woe
And glory of the virtuous grow.
May ministers always bear
On their breasts that mistress fair,
Good policy, to constantly
Kiss the face; and may there be
Every day, for one and all
A great and happy festival.
‘And this too,
(140) As long as dwells the lord with lunar crest,
Within the mountain maiden’s warm embrace;17
As long as Lakshmī gleams on Viṣṇu’s breast,
Like lightning’s flash in monsoon clouds apace;
As long as shines great Merū’s golden peak,
A flame whose very sparks are like the sun;
So long may this concourse of stories speak
To men. It was by Nārāyaṇa done.
‘Furthermore,
(141) To Dhavala Ćandra, Victory!
An illustrious prince is he,
Through his efforts, this collection
Was writ and put in circulation.’
Notes
Introduction
1. A. L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, New York, 1954
2. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-Portions in the Kathā-Literature, vol. II, Meharchand Lachhman Das, Delhi, 1974. This, and the same scholar’s The Hitopadeśa and its Sources, American Oriental Society 44, New Haven, 1960, contain the two most detailed studies of the Hitopadeśa so far.
3. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-Portions in the Kathā-Literature, Vol II.
4. L. Sternbach, The Hitopadeśa and its Sources.
5. The Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Śarma, in a series of connected Fables interspersed with Moral, Prudential & Political Maxims, translated from an ancient manuscript in the Sanskreet Language with Explanatory Notes by Charles Wilkins, Bath: Printed by R. Cruttwell, MDCCLXXXVII.
6. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-Portions in the Kathā-Literature.
7. Hitopadeśa of Nārāyaṇa, ed. P. Peterson, Bombay, 1887.
8. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-Portions in the Kathā-Literature; also A. B. Keith, A History of Sanskrit Literature, Oxford, 1920.
9. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-portions in the Kathā-Literature.
10. Ibid.
11. L. Sternbach, The Hitopadeśa and its Sources.
12. L. Sternbach, The Kāvya-Portions in the Kathā-Literature.
13. L. Sternbach, The Hitopadeśa and its Sources.
14. The sourcing of I.16, I.122 and IV.92 is based on Hitopadeśa of Nārāyaṇa, ed. M. R. Kale, Bombay, 1896, reprinted, Delhi, 1989.
15. A. L. Basham, The Wonder that was India, New York, 1954.
16. Subhāshita Samgraha, vol. I, compiled by K.A.S. Iyer, Sahitya Akademi New Delhi, 1971
17. D.H.H. Ingalls (tr.), Sanskrit Poetry, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1965.
18. L. Sternbach, The Hitopadeśa and its Sources.
19. Hitopadeśa of Nārāyaṇa, ed. M. R. Kale, Bombay, 1896, reprinted, Delhi 1989.
Book I. Mitralābha / Gaining Friends
1. So called because the lilies which bloomed at night were believed to do so under the moon’s influence.
2. Because the elephant is seen to squirt dust over itself no sooner than it is washed.
3. The cobra was believed to have a precious gem inside its hood.
4. The mythical king of the serpents had a thousand heads. The snake’s forked tongue is also described as twinned.
5. A religious observance, in which young virgins are reverenced as living embodiments of the goddess during the festival of Navarātrī, is still prevalent in parts of India and Nepal.
Book II. Suhrdbheda / Splitting Partners
1. The sage Bṛhaspati, a symbol of wisdom, is the preceptor of the gods. Also mentioned in the Prologue after verse 42.
2. In an episode in the epic Mahābhārata, the divine incarnation Krishna was bitterly abused and cursed by Śiśupāla, the king of Ćedi. Krishna long ignored the diatribe, but eventually he killed the king when the latter’s vituperation crossed a certain limit. The implication here is that noble people prefer to ignore discourteous behaviour by the base.
3. A small coin, in its time equivalent to one-sixty-fourth of rupee.
4. Śakuni was the uncle and evil genius of the Kaurava king Duryodhana who was defeated in the great war of the Mahābhārata. Śakatāra was the minister of King Nanda who was overthrown by Ćandragupta Maurya.
5. The gandharva rite was one of the eight forms of marriage recognized by ancient law. It dispensed with parental consent and other rituals.
6. This and verse II.64 have one identical line in the original.
7. The three sources of state power postulated by ancient Indian politica
l theorists are described in Book IV, in the prose portion between verses 53 and 54.
8. It was believed that this animal always died while giving birth.
9. These are dharma (virtue), artha (profit) and kāma (pleasure). The fourth human goal, moksha (salvation), is spiritual and not worldly. See also Prologue, verse 26.
Book III. Vigraha / War
1. Markings on the surface of the moon constitute a rabbit in Indian folklore.
2. The reference is to a person from the Brahmin or priestly caste.
3. In to order to protect the world the god Śiva swallowed the cosmic poison which he alone could endure. However the poison was so strong that it turned the god’s throat blue. The verse refers to this myth, but is also a dig at the Brahmin caste. See also verse II.95.
4. The thought being conveyed is that cool heads can surmount great difficulties.
5. According to tradition, Ćāṇakya brought about the overthrow of King Nanda of Magadha, and the succession of Ćandragupta Maurya, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. Considered a master of diplomacy, Ćāṇakya’s feats are described in the sixth-century play Mudrārākshasa by Viśākha Datta. The political treatise Arthaśāstra and various verses are ascribed to Ćāṇakya as noted in the Introduction. See also note II.4 above.
6. The trunk, the head, two tusks and four legs.
7. A salutation expressing the most profound reverence, the Sāṣtānga is so called as it is performed with eight parts of the body—the two feet, knees and hands, the chest and the forehead—touching the ground. The term also occurs in Book II.
8. Semi-divine beings. Their chief is Kubera, the god of wealth.
Book IV. Sandhi / Peace
1. In the original text this verse is the same as I.119.
2. Same as II.117.
3. Same as Prologue, verse 29.
4. This and the next two verses are almost the same as I.57, II.169 and II.168 respectively in the original text, except for slight differences.
5. See note II.1.
6. i.e. not to speak of those who are more powerful.
7. The warrior sage Paraśurāma, a divine incarnation, who defeated all the kings of his time.
8. A hero of the epic Mahābhārata who was famous for his virtue as well as lack of guile.
9. A unit of distance, about three kilometres.
10. The same as I.74.
11. A mythical king from whose name is derived a Sanskrit word for the sea.
12. The verse, addressed to a character in the Mahābhārata, occurs in the epic’s Udyoga Parvan section, (39/40.21).
13. Sāma, dāma, bhéda and danda are the four expedients of policy already enumerated in prose between IV. 53 and IV.54, and also mentioned in III.40. The first, denoting conciliation, is the most preferable method. The last, denoting force, is the least preferable.
14. A reference to the epic Rāmāyaṇa. Rāma agreed to help Sugrīva regain the throne, and Sugriva in turn agreed to help Rāma search for his abducted wife.
15. Same as I.71.
16. Same as I.14.
17. The reference is to the god śiva and his consort, the goddess Pārvati. He is described often as one who bears the crescent moon on his forehead, (cf. Prologue, verse 1). She is the daughter of the Himālaya mountain. The next line refers to the other main divine couple of the Hindu pantheon.