WISE MAN’S SAYINGS : NITI LITERATURE AS A WAY TO MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND THEORY:

WISE MAN’S SAYINGS : NITI  LITERATURE AS A WAY TO MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND THEORY:

 

 

 

WISE SAYINGS, MAXIMS, adages, aphorisms were very popular in India from times immemorial. They are generally called as  subhasita-samgrahas. that is. collec-

tions of metrical stanzas — good sayings (subhasita’s).

 

Aphorisms, maxims, adages have been constantly quoted in conversations and formed a storied treasury of wise sayings transmitted by oral tradition until they were collected in subha- si ta-sarhgrahas.

 

Most of the times they were bound together by stories and included in katha works and may be for keeping safe and handy  subhasita-samgrahas the most famous katha works were com-

posed. The Pahcatantra and the Hitopadesa which are the best known niti works in India and now all over the world. It is notable that these wise sayings in Sanskrit, were so popular in Indian subcontinent that they later spread also to countries west, south, north and, in all nooks and corners. (LUDWIK STERNBACH from ICWTC )

 

 

They were often translated in regional languages may it be Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, or Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and even were well known in Ceylon. They came there either directly or through the collections of wise sayings written in Tamil or other Southern languages, through the Naladiyar. The Sanskrit wise sayings were well known in Nepal and Tibet and may be through the Manipurian Punnas the Sanskrit wise sayings crossed the frontier to Burma and became part of the Pali literature of Burma, in the form of  Pali Lokaniti. Pali Lokniti spread the to the several islands and nations in South East Asia and their prevalence in  Siam. Laos, Xieng Mai, Champa, etc. is visible. From Pali, the Lokaniti also got further percolated to local languages of the region like translation of the Lokanlti into Burmese, in the form of the Niti Kyan.

 

The Hindu empires helped to spread it in the Malay peninsula and the whole of the Indian Archipelago spread also to Java. Sumatra and Bali. The Pahcatantra and the Hitopadesa or parts of the Mahabharata like the Viduraniti of the Udyogaparvan, were translated into the local languages of several parts of India and the greater India say the countries surrounding India and even to the countries more to the west, east, south and north of India, the wise sayings contained in these works also became known in these countries.

 

The Panchtantra, was translated in 570 a.d under the patronage of the Sassanian King Chosroes AnOshirwan (531-579 a.d.) into Pehlavi, and old Syriac and an old Arabic translation are available. The Old Syriac translation made by a Syrian priest, named Bud, in

old Arabic by Ibnu’l-Muquaffa in  750 a.d. was named  Kalila wa-Dimna (later

called Tables of Bidpai) became the basis of all the translations and adaptations into European languages. A Greek translation followed by the Italian , German and some Slavonic translations were made.and till the twelfth century a Hebrew translation followed by a Latin translation by Johannis di Capua

the East-Turkish translations and adaptations, in particular the Persian adaptation called

Anwari Suhaili by Husain ibn All al-Wa’iz which in turn was the basis of several translations

into European and Asian languages (Turkish, Georgian, Grusian, French, Swedish. English.

German. Dutch. Hungarian, Malay, etc.).

 

In the thirteenth century a.d. a second Hebrew translation was prepared by Jacob ben

Eleazar from the Arabic translation. This continued further as well.

 In the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries AD. Some of the works best known in India

at that time, not necessarily of Buddhist character, were translated into Tibetan and were included in the Tanjur. Eight niti works were so included in the Tanjur.

Some of them are :Ses-rab brgya-pa zhes-bya-bahi rab-tu-byed-pa; in Sanskrit Prajhasataka nama prakarana by Nagarjuna;

 

Lugs-kyi bstan-bcos ses-rab sdoh-po zhes-bya-ba ; in Sanskrit Nitisastra prajhadanda

nama by Nagarjuna;

 

Lugs-kyi bstan-bcos skye-bo gso-bahi thigs-pa zhes-bya-ba; in Sanskrit Nitis'astra

jantuposanabindu nama also by Nagarjuna;

 

Tshigs-su bcad-pahi mdzod ces-bya-ba; in Sanskrit Gathakosa nama or Aryakosa by

Ravigupta ;

 

Tshigs-su bcad-pa brgya-pa; in Sanskrit Satagatha by Vararuci;

 

Tsa-na-kahi rgyal-polji lugs-kyi bstan-bcos; in Sanskrit Canakyanitisastra by Canakya;

 

Lugs-kyi bstan-bcos; in Sanskrit Nitisastra by Masuraksa.

 

These were prevalent in the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries a.d. in India, Canakya-raja-niti-sastra version of Canakva's sayings was included also in the Brhaspati-samhita of the Garuda Purana and became popular and prevalent in Tibet. The Nitisastra-prajhadanda or She-rab dong-bu is also very much imporatnt ans was prevalent in Tibet. Though Winternitz considered that it was not likely that the She-rab dong-bu was the work of Nagarjuna,  W.L. Campbell says that it  was written by Nagarjuna himself. As per  Campbell it was composed some time in the first century b.c.  She-rab dong-bu quoted some stanzas from the Pancatantra or the katha literature. The Niti-sastra of Masuraksa was edited in Tibetan and Sanskrit and translated into English by Sunitikumar Pathak in the Visva-Bharatl Annals, Vol. X. Masuraka’s work was a subhasita-samgraha, a type of work which was very popular in India beginning from the tenth or eleventh century a.d. The Nitisastra jantu- posanabindu — both ascribed to Nagarjuna, Ravigupta’s Aryakosa (Gathakosa) and Vararuci’s Satagatha have a number of Sanskrit niti-sayings, a part of which Another collection of niti- verses was done in the thirteenth century in Tibet. This was the Subhasita-ratna-nidhi (niti)

The Subhasita-ratna-nidhi, contains 456-457 different aphorisms in nine chapters is Sanskrit and not of Chinese origin, Indeed, the Subhasita literature of Indian origin was prevalent  from Tibet to Mongolia.

 

Another version of Canakya’s aphorisms, the Canakya-niti-sastra version of Canak-

ya’s sayings became prevalent in Ceylon. They came there in four

Periods:  The first being up to 1017 a.d., it is up to the conquest of Ceylon by the Cholas. i.e.

the Anuradhapura period ; the second up to the beginning of the sixteenth century, i.e. the time when the Portuguese conquered the coastline of Ceylon; the third lasted until 1815. i.e..

the Kandy period ; and the fourth or the modern period began in 1815. During the latter period Sanskrit became better known and was more frequently learned by the Singhalese. The collections of niti-sayings. namely the Vyasakaraya composed of some 100 maxims and the Pratyayasatakaya also composed of some 100 maxims.

 

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