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A History of Sanskrit Literature c17.s1: 1. Gnomic Poetry

A History of Sanskrit Literature c17.s1

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English

1. Gnomic Poetry

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INDIA has always delighted in the expression in verse of pithy observations on life and morals. We find the beginnings of such poetry in the *Ṛgveda*, moral stanzas are preserved incidentally in surprising number in an episode of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*, such verses appear in the Upaniṣads and the Sūtras, while the *Mahābhārata* is only too rich both in gnomai and in didactic matter; philosophy, morals, practical advice for life, and rules of polity in the widest sense of that term, including the conduct of war, are flung at the reader in undigested masses. There is evidence from Patañjali that he knew such a literature, and in the *Dhammapada* of the Pāli canon we have the finest collection of *sententiae* known in India.

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These maxims were not, of course, popular in the full sense of that term; they are not to be compared to proverbs racy of the soil preserved in their primitive form; they are, as in the maxims of Phokylides in Greece, the turning of the raw material by poets into finished products, and the perfection of their finish varies greatly. Some of them, doubtless, first became current in literature through having been composed or adopted by writers of the fable literature, others merely passed current from mouth to mouth until efforts were made by compilers to collect such popular currency. We need not doubt that the collector became normally an inventor at the same time. We can, indeed, hardly imagine that it would be otherwise; that would assuredly be a more than normally stupid person who could not on the models he had devise a fresh series of maxims, or at least remould the old. We see, in fact, the process at work in the case of the collections¹ which pass under a variety of names such as *Rājanītisamuccaya*, *Cāṇakyanīti*, *Cāṇakyarājanīti*, *Vṛddha-Cāṇakya*, *Laghu-Cāṇakya*, and so on. The number of recensions is extremely large—seventeen have been distinguished and doubtless there are more, for often each manuscript shows distinct variations from any other; the compilers were eclectic, they had many sources open, and it is now quite impossible to determine anything like the original shape of the collection. That it was composed by Cāṇakya, the minister of Candragupta, is absurd; it is perfectly clear that it was passed off under his name because he was famous. We do not even know whether the first stanza in some recensions which promises a treatise on Rājanīti, the conduct of princes, can be taken as indicating that originally the collection dealt with that subject alone. At any rate the number of verses which can be assigned to that topic in extant recensions is negligible, and it seems much more likely that the stanza is the product of the imagination of some one who wished to give the collection a closer appearance of connexion with the minister. The book in its various forms varies enormously; thus one recension has 340 stanzas in seventeen chapters of equal length; another by Bhojarāja, preserved in a manuscript in Çāradā characters, has 576 verses in eight chapters. Its contents deal with general rules for the conduct of life, for intercourse among men, general reflections on richness and poverty, on fate and human effort, on a variety of ethical and religious topics. In the main the stanzas are not connected by any bond of thought, but there are exceptions. Here and there verses are clearly meant to be antithetical. In one passage we find a continuation of the habit, seen in full development in such works as the Pāli *Aṅguttara Nikāya* and the Jain *Sthānāṅga*, to use numerical formulae to fix matters in the memory. Here the wise man is bidden to learn one thing from the lion, one from the heron, four from the cock, five from the crow, six from the dog, and three from the ass. In another group of seven verses the different kinds of Brahmin are expounded, the holy seer, the normal Brahmin, the Vaiçya, who lives by trade or agriculture, the Çūdra who sells *inter alia* meat and drink, the cat who is treacherous, the barbarian who is destructive, and the Caṇḍāla who is a thief and adulterer. There are certain quite common mannerisms in the collection such as the insistence on the use of numbers to give the total of groups sometimes of homogeneous, but also often of quite disparate things, as when one is warned not to abide in a place where there is not a king, a rich man, a learned man, a river, and a doctor. So we have a list of six bad things:

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¹ O. Kressler, *Stimmen indischer Lebensklugheit* (1907). There are Tibetan (SBA. 1895, p. 275) and Arabic versions (Zachariae, WZKM. xxviii. 182 ff.); for Galanos’ source see Bolling, JAOS. xli. 49 ff.

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*çuṣkaṁ māṅsaṁ striyo vṛddhā bālārkas taruṇaṁ dadhi* *prabhāte maithunaṁ nidrā sadyaḥ prāṇaharāṇi ṣaṭ.*

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‘Dry meat, old women, the young sun, milk just soured, dalliance and slumber in the morning, are the six things that take away life.’ A very common device is the repetition of the main word in a series of definitions, as in:

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*sā bhāryā yā çucir dakṣā sā bhāryā yā pativratā* *sā bhāryā yā patiprītā sā bhāryā satyavādinī.*

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‘A true wife she who is pure and clever, a true wife she who is faithful to her spouse, a true wife she whom her husband adores, a true wife she who never tells a lie.’

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*satyena dhāryate pṛthvī satyena tapyate raviḥ* *satyena vāti vāyuç ca sarvaṁ satye pratiṣṭhitam.*

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‘By truth the earth is supported, by truth the sun gives heat, by truth blows the wind, on truth all is established.’ Even numerical enumerations may have point:

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*sakṛj jalpanti rājānaḥ sakṛj jalpanti paṇḍitāḥ* *sakṛt kanyā pradīyate trīṇy etāni sakṛt sakṛt.*

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‘But once do kings give orders, but once speak the wise, but once is given a maiden in marriage; all these three things are done but once.’ The force of example is extolled in one of the few political maxims:

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*rājñi dharmiṇi dharmiṣṭhāḥ pāpe pāpāḥ same samāḥ* *rājānam anuvartante yathā rājā tathā prajāḥ.*

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‘When the king walks righteously, most righteous are the people, if he be evil, evil they also, if mediocre, the same with them; as the king, so the people.’ Another maxim emphasizes the advantages of noble character:

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*etadarthaṁ kulīnānāṁ nṛpāḥ kurvanti saṁgraham* *ādimadhyāvasāneṣu na tyajanti ca te nṛpam.*

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‘For this reason do kings gather to themselves men of high mind, that neither at the start, the crisis, nor the finish may they play them false.’ A careful structure and a deliberate attempt at rhetorical effect may be seen in the following:

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*kurājarājyena kutaḥ prajāsukhaṁ: kumitramitreṇa kuto ’sti nirvṛtiḥ*
*kudāradāre ca kuto gṛhe ratiḥ: kuçiṣyam adhyāpayataḥ kuto yaçaḥ?*

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‘Whence can happiness come to the people through the reign of an evil king? What relaxation is there in friendship with an evil friend? What happiness in the home where the wife is a bad wife? What fame in instructing a bad pupil?’

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The pedestrian character of the topics is alleviated by the use of metaphors and similes from the life of nature:

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*ekenāpi suputreṇa vidyāyuktena sādhunā*
*āhlāditaṁ kulaṁ sarvaṁ yathā candreṇa çarvarī.*

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‘One noble son, good and wise, illuminates the whole of his kin, as the moon the night.’

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***satsaṅgād bhavati hi sādhutā khalānām: sādhūnāṁ na ca khalasaṁgamāt khalatvam***
***āmodaṁ kusumabhavam mṛd eva dhatte: mṛdgandhaṁ na ca kusumāni dhārayanti.***

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‘From association with the good fools become noble, but from association with fools noble men remain pure; the earthen vase draws to itself the odour of the flowers therein, but the flowers absorb none of the scent of the vase.’

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*nātyantasaralair bhāvyaṁ gatvā paçya vanasthalīm*
*chidyante saralās tatra kubjās tiṣṭhanti pādapāḥ.*

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‘Be not too upright; read the parable of the wood; the erect trees are those that are felled, the crooked are left standing.’ A better moral than this is taught:

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*varaṁ prāṇaparityāgo na mānaparikhaṇḍanam*
*prāṇatyāgaḥ kṣaṇaṁ caiva mānabhaṅgo dine dine.*

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‘Better death than dishonour; dying lasts but a moment, dishonour endures for ever.' Fatalism is similarly matched with the exaltation of asceticism:

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*tādṛçī jāyate buddhir vyavasāyo 'pi tādṛçaḥ*
*sahāyas tādṛça eva yādṛçī bhavitavyatā.*

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'Man's thought, man's resolve, man's companions, all are such as fate decides.' But:

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*yad dūraṁ yad durārādhyaṁ yac cādūre vyavasthitam*
*tat sarvaṁ tapasā sādhyaṁ tapo hi duratikramam.*

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'What is afar, what is hard to attain, what is placed near at hand, all that can be accomplished by asceticism; asceticism is hard to overcome.' Women are unpopular:

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*anṛtaṁ sāhasaṁ māyā mūrkhatvam atilobhatā*
*açaucatvaṁ nirdayatvaṁ strīṇāṁ doṣāḥ svabhāvajāḥ.*

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'Untruth, haste, cunning, folly, greed, impurity, pitilessness, these are woman's innate faults.' A parable recommends the advantages of appearances:

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*nirviṣeṇāpi sarpeṇa kartavyā mahatī phaṇā*
*viṣam astu na vāpy astu khaṭāṭopo bhayaṁkaraḥ.*

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'If a serpent have no poison yet should he swell out his hood; be poison there or be it not, the expansion of the hood is terrifying.'

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The Çloka is the prevailing metre, but there occur stanzas in other metres, especially in Bhojarāja's recension which has many in Indravajrā, Vaṁçasthā, Vasantatilaka, and Çārdūlavikrīḍita.

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Other minor collections of gnomic stanzas are attributed to Vararuci—which of the many is meant is quite unknown, to Ghaṭakarpara, and to Vetāla Bhaṭṭa, under the styles of *Nītiratna*, *Nītisāra*, and *Nītipradīpa*; they contain some excellent stanzas, but their date is quite uncertain. Of far greater importance is the *Nītiçataka* of Bhartṛhari, which has already been noticed. Under the avaricious Çaṅkaravarman (883–902) of Kashmir wrote Bhallaṭa, who suffered severely from the failure of the king to reward poets. His Çataka¹ is carefully elaborated and in varied metres, and it is clear that it is not wholly original; at least one stanza of Ānandavardhana, his earlier contemporary, is included in it.¹ Bhallaṭa wrote also a good deal of other poetry, to judge from citations in the anthologies, which include many well-turned verses. His style is usually fairly simple:

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¹ Ed. KM. iv. 140 ff. Cf. Kalhaṇa, v. 204.

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¹ ZDMG. lvi. 405.

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*antaç chidrāṇi bhūyāṅsi kaṇṭakā bahavo bahiḥ*
*kathaṁ kamalanāthasya mā bhūvan bhaṅgurā guṇāḥ?*

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‘Many a thorn without, many a space within; ’twere a marvel if the merits of the lotus stem were not frail.’ Another allegory is one of the dust:

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*ye jātyā laghavaḥ sadaiva gaṇanāṁ yātā na ye kutra cit*
*padbhyām eva vimarditāḥ pratidinam bhūmau nilīnāç ciram*
*utkṣiptāç capalāçayena marutā paçyāntarikṣe sakhe*
*tuṅgānām upari sthitiṁ kṣitibhṛtāṁ kurvanty amī pāṁsavaḥ.*

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‘The dust, light by nature, is deemed nought, day by day it is trampled beneath our feet and trodden into the ground; but see, dear friend, the fickle wind has tossed it high, and it settles now on the summit of the lofty mountains.’

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Less original is the work of another Kashmirian poet, a certain Çilhaṇa,² who may also have worked in Bengal. It is clear that he was an admirer of Bhartṛhari; he borrows from him, and when he does not reproduce he alters, partly, no doubt, in order to adapt the standpoint of an earnest Vaiṣṇava to that of a Çaiva like Bhartṛhari; one stanza is borrowed from the *Nāgānanda* of Harṣa. Çilhaṇa is essentially bent on glorifying by his compilation, to which he doubtless added original matter of his own, the merits of asceticism, and there is much in him that is common to all three great religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It would be difficult to assert that he is a great poet; his matter is more interesting than his manner, which is competent but hardly more than that. His date is uncertain, but before the *Saduktikarṇāmṛta* (1205), in which he is cited. Pischel has not unnaturally seen in him a mistake for Bilhaṇa, and one of Bilhaṇa’s verses is actually found, at least in some manuscripts of the *Çataka*. Nor can the suggestion be positively disproved; it is true that Bilhaṇa is not usually a compiler, but that is not to say that he did not become one in old age: he owned wealth, as the *Vikramāṅkadevacarita* proves, and his eroticism is established by the *Caurasuratapañcāçikā*; but we know from his epic that he grew weary of the world in old age, and that he passes over his erotic poem in silence, so that we might easily believe that he renounced wealth and love and sought the delights of solitude and devotion to God. But in the absence of any old tradition we cannot press Pischel's suggestion.

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² Ed. K. Schönfeld, Leipzig, 1910. See Keith, JRAS. 1911, pp. 257 ff.

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The following stanzas illustrate well the minor key of Çilhaṇa's art:

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*tvām udara sādhu manye çākair api yad asi labdhaparitoṣam* *hatahṛdayaṁ hy adhikādhikavāñchāçatadurbharaṁ na punaḥ.*

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‘Thee, O belly, I deem wise, since thou art satisfied with mere vegetables; but quite other is my view of the accursed heart which is ever more difficult to satiate because of its hundreds of wishes.’

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*dadhati tāvad amī viṣayāḥ sukhaṁ: sphuratu yāvad iyaṁ hṛdi mūḍhatā* *manasi tattvavidāṁ tu vivecake: kva viṣayāḥ kva sukhaṁ kva parigrahaḥ?*

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‘Things of sense delight us here so long only as folly reigns in our hearts; in the mind of those who know the truth objects, delight, and acquisition thereof are nothing.’

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*vāso valkalam āstaraṁ kisalayāny okas tarūṇāṁ talam* *mūlāni kṣataye kṣudhāṁ girinadītoyaṁ tṛṣṇāçāntaye* *krīḍā mugdhamṛgair vayāṅsi suhṛdo naktaṁ pradīpaḥ çaçī* *svādhīne vibhave tathāpi kṛpaṇā yācanta ity adbhutam.*

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‘Bark for a garment, twigs for a bed, the foot of a tree for a house, roots to banish hunger, water from mountain streams to quench thirst, sport with the loving gazelles, the birds as friends, the moon as a lamp by night: with such riches at their pleasure, strange that the poor should beg.’

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Other works are of less interest; Çambhu wrote under Harṣa of Kashmir (1089–1101) an *Anyoktimuktālatāçataka*¹ in 108 elaborate stanzas, of no special merit. His *Rājendrakarṇapūra*,² a eulogy of Harṣa, is cited by Vallabhadeva freely, not his Çataka. The *Dṛṣṭāntaçataka*¹ of Kusumadeva is probably late, though it is cited by Vallabhadeva: it illustrates each maxim by an example, whence its name, and is simple and unpretentious:

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¹ Ed. KM. ii. 61 ff.

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² Ed. KM. i. 22 ff.

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¹ Ed. Haeberlin, 217 ff.

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*uttamaḥ kleçavikṣobhaṁ kṣamaḥ soḍhuṁ na hītaraḥ*
*maṇir eva mahāçāṇagharṣaṇaṁ na tu mṛtkaṇaḥ.*

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‘Only the noble can bear the pangs of sorrow; the jewel resists the pressure of the grindstone, not the lime.’

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*īçvarāḥ piçunāñ chaçvad dviṣantīti kim adbhutam*
*prāyo nidhaya evāhīn dvijihvān dadhatetarām.*

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‘What wonder if the rich ever hate false men? Treasures ever conceal two-headed snakes.’ The verbal form in the comparative is a frequent feature in this poetry.

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*dhanam api paradattaṁ duḥkham aucityabhājām*
*bhavati hṛdi tad evānandakārītareṣām*
*Malayajarasabindur bādhate netram antar*
*janayati ca sa evāhlādam anyatra gātre.*

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‘If given by another even wealth is a sorrow to the noble; it is others whose hearts it delights; the water drops from the Malaya wind trouble the eye, though they give pleasure to the rest of the body.’

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Still later probably are the *Bhāvaçataka*² of Nāgarāja of the Ṭāka family, or of Bhāva, his protégé, and the *Upadeçaçataka*³ of Gumāni, as well as many other works. In the seventeenth century the great authority on poetics, Jagannātha, wrote his *Bhāminīvilāsa*,⁴ admirable in many respects both as an erotic poem, an elegy, and a store of gnomic sayings, but this poetry is well beyond the limits here set.

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² Ed. KM. iv. 37.

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³ Ed. KM. ii. 21 ff.

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⁴ Ed. Bergaigne, Paris, 1872.

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The anthologies, which are our sources of so many lyric stanzas, are equally rich in gnomic matter, sometimes of great beauty, and there are a number of brief poems which may best be reckoned as gnomic. The most famous is the *Cātakāṣṭaka*⁵ of uncertain date; the bird will drink only the water of the clouds, and thus is a symbol of *hauteur*:

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⁵ Ed. Haeberlin, 237 ff.

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*eka eva khage mānī vane vasati cātakaḥ*
*pipāsito vā mriyate yācate vā purandaram.*

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‘No peer is there in pride for the Cātaka among the wood-dwellers; athirst he dies or makes supplication to Indra alone.’

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To an unknown Bhaṭṭa Ūrvīdhara are ascribed some verses full of rough good sense:

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*anāhutapraviṣṭasya dṛṣṭasya kruddhacakṣuṣā*
*svayam evopaviṣṭasya varaṁ mṛtyur na bhojanam.*

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‘Better death than feeding an uninvited guest who calmly sits down, though you glare angrily at him.’

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*ā saptater yasya vivāhapaṅktir: vicchidyate nūnam apaṇḍito ’sau*
*jīvanti tāḥ kartanakuṭṭanābhyāṁ: gobhyaḥ kim ukṣā yavasaṁ dadāti?*

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‘He is a fool who goes not on marrying until seventy; his wives can live by spinning and pounding; does the bull provide fodder for the cows?’ Very different is the exquisite simile which justifies pity for the worthless:

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*nirguṇeṣv api sattveṣu dāyāṁ kurvanti sādhavaḥ*
*na hi saṁharate jyotsnāṁ candraç caṇḍālaveçmani.*

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‘The noble show compassion even to the worthless; the moon doth not withhold her light even from the Caṇḍāla’s abode.’ The immutability of facts is proved in the *Nītiratna*:

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*maṇir luṭhati pādāgre kacaḥ çirasi dhāryate*
*yathaivāste tathaivāstāṁ kaco kaco maṇir maṇiḥ.*

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‘A jewel rolls before our feet, glass is placed on the head; let them be as they are, a jewel remains a jewel, and glass glass.’ Royal service is exposed:

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*rājasevā manuṣyāṇām asidhārāvalehanam*
*pañcānanapariṣvañjo vyālivadanacumbanam.*

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‘For a man to serve a king is as wise as to lick the edge of a sword, embrace a lion, and kiss the mouth of a serpent.’ The evils of overcrowding are not modern alone, as Vainateya shows in a humorous stanza:

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*tasminn eva gṛhodare rasavatī tatraiva sā kaṇḍanī*
*tatropaskaraṇāni tatra çiçavas tatraiva vāsaḥ svayam*

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*sarvaṁ soḍhavato 'pi duḥsthagr̥hiṇaḥ kiṁ brūmahe tāṁ daçām*
*adya çvo janayiṣyamāṇagr̥hiṇī tatraiva yat kunthati.*

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‘Within the house is the kitchen, there the mortar, there too the crockery, there the children, there his own study. He has put up with all that, but what can we say of the condition of the wretched householder when his wife who to-day or to-morrow will present him with a new addition to his family must spend there her time of labour?’

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