A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s9.1

v3.c35.s9.1

Closely connected with lyrics is gnomic poetry. In many works lyric stanzas and didactic passages are blended into a single whole in such a way that one may be in doubt in the matter of grouping them. Perhaps Indians have not attained such perfect mastery in any sphere as in gnomic poetry. They have not more wonderfully succeeded in anything as in the art of giving brief and accurate expression to an idea in two lines. Most of the epigrams are written in the form of ślokas—and they describe accurately or often lay out a beautiful picture either from nature or with the help of a strikingly deep thought simile. Numerous narratives, aphorisms and statements in literature, however, also prove the existence of rich treasure of “nice saying” (*subhāṣita*), that has been stored up by Indians of all the ages¹. Nowhere else do these epigrams occur more beautifully and with greater grandeur than in the Sāvitrī-peom in the Mahābhārata. As we have already seen above, we find abudance of aphorisms also at other places in the Mahābhārata, both in the epic proper and in the didactic sections in particular². These epigrams are in no way always ‘conventional moral lessons’, but have reference partly to wordly wisdom (*artha*, *nīti*) and partly to duty (*dharma*)³. They are, very often, in fact, the sequel to extensive personal experience, and there is no sphere of human life that has not been touched by them. Even up to this day it is a necessary part of education to know suitable epigrammatic stanzas, that are fit to be quoted in appropriate places in course of conversation⁴. That it was so in earlier times too is proved by an aphorism quoted in anthologies⁵ :