Fables and proverbs from the Sanskrit : being the Hitopadesa

Introduction

IN the family of languages to which English belongs, the Indo- European Family, Sanskrit is eldest brother. The parent language was spoken in a remote prehistoric time by a people living somewhere about the five rivers of the Punjaub. By migrations of that people westward there were afterwards established all the nations of the Iranian, Slavonic, Celtic, Teutonic and Classical stocks. The parent language, Aryan, has itself long since been lost ; but its words, subjected to regular varieties of change, have passed into many lands. Additions have been many, but those words of which the roots are common to us all, bear witness to the common origin of the chief nations of Europe, and to their brotherhood with races now in India.

Descendants of that remote prehistoric Aryan people, who re mained in India and were less remote, but also prehistoric, spoke Sanskrit. They left in their own tongue sacred books by which Sanskrit was established as a classical language. It was cultivated by the religious orders and used as the language in which all high religious teaching was enshrined. Thus its grammar was studied and pn served, and the language itself, first born of the old Aryan, has been maintained in its purity until this day. As the vernacular speech of a living people, applied to all their common daily wants, Sanskrit has not been used within the memory of man, but in some parts of India the vernacular does not differ from it very greatly.

The oldest Sanskrit books are at the fountain-head of European literature. These are the four Vedas, regarded as the source of all other Sastras or sacred books. The Vedas are written in an Iambic measure of eight syllables, and the earliest of them have been assigned by Sir William Jones to a date as early as 1 500 years before Christ. The word Veda means knowledge, but though names of authors of the several parts were preserved, the whole was taken to mean inspired knowledge, "the selfevident word proceeding out of the mouth of God, this is the Veda." The first of the Vedas, called Rig from a word meaning

6 INTRODUCTION.

praise, expresses the relations b tween man and God. The second, called Yajur, from a word meaning worship, contains instructions upon ceremonial. The third, called Sama, from a word signifying a prayer arranged for singing, contains pieces arranged as chants. Atharva, the fourth Veda, less ancient than the rest, contains forms of imprecation, prayers, hymns, and fifty-two theological treatises called Upanishads. Atharvan is referred to in it as a king appointed by Brahma to protect inferior beings. There are also detached Upanishads which are regarded as of less authority than the fifty-two contained in the Atharva- Veda. The Upanishads, or argumentative parts of the Vedas, are regarded as forming the Jnana, or philosophical part of the sacred books, and theological argument is based on these ; the parts devoted to pure teaching of the religious system, its customs, sacrifices, ceremonies, form the Brahmanas ; and the prayers and hymns in each Veda constitute its Sanhita. Thus, with regard to this matter the Vedas are said to contain Brah manas, Jnana and Sanhita. The Brahmanas recognize a three fold Veda, not reckoning the fourth, and derive the third from the first, the Rig- Veda, which teaches that there is one only supreme God, a pure spirit dwelling in eternal rest and silence, who is All, and in All. He is the supreme Brahma, who created the world by three manifestations drawn from himself, and named Brahma", Vishnu, Siva, originally united in one essence, so that '' the great One " became known as one Person and three gods. Brahma represents Creation, Vishnu Preservation, and Siva Destruction. Of Vishnu, the Preserver, there have been nine Avatars or Incarnations, the first six were in the golden ;;ge of the world, the seventh was as Rama, the eighth as Krishna, the ninth as Buddha. The tenth, in which he will appear as a white horse, is yet awaited. In his last Avatar, as Buddha, Vishnu promoted scepticism to the end that the giants, wanting faith, might cease to obtain by prayer the powers that they misapplied.

The time during which the Vedas were produced extended over centuries, with periodic changes of style, and has been divided into four periods, the last of which, from 600 to 200 B.C., was the period of Sutra literature. Sutra means a string, and stands for a literature of short sayings strung to gether, by teachers who studied brevity, and of whom it was said, in their own proverbial way, that an author rejoiceth in the economizing of half a short vowel as much as in the birth of a son.

There were drawn from the four Vedas four Upa- Vedas. One was on Medicine from the Rig- Veda ; one on Music from the Sama- Veda ; one on Arms and Implements of War, from the Yajur- Veda ; and one on sixty-four Mechanical Arts, from the Atharva- Veda. The Upa- Vedas are now lost.

INTRODUCTION >

Also there were six Vedangas, or limbs of the Veda, treating severally of six sciences needed for interpretation of the sacred books. They were Pronunciation, Grammar, Prosody, Expla nation of difficult words or phrases, Religious Ceremonial, and Astrology. To ihese were added four Upangas or additional limbs ; History vthe Purana) : Logic (the Nyaya) ; Moral Philo sophy (the Mimansa) ; and Jurisprudence ^the Dharma-Sastra).

The earliest of these sacred writings, in their earliest period, were preserved only by oral tradition. They continued to live in the persons of men of the sacred caste, and thus different texts or versions of the Vedas. known as Sakhas, were preserved in different Charanas or schools of the Brahmans, who pre served the books in memorv. A name for a Brahman settlement \v.is a Parishad. It was said that "four or even three able men from among the Brahmans in a village who know the Veda and keep the sacrificial fire, form a Parishad." Members of different Parishads might be associated in one school or Charana.

Of the Law Books, or Dharma-Sastras, the most ancient and most famous is that known as the u Institutes of Mann," first translated into English by Sir William Jones. Manu was fabled to be the son of Brahma, to have preserved the Vedas from destruction in the Hindoo deluge, and to have given in that Book of Laws an abstract of their contents.

The Indians had also six Darsanas, or systems of philosophy, all seeking the highest good in eternal happiness, and all accept ing the authority of the Vedas but interpreting them variously. The six systems are essentially three. One, the Nyaya, brings knowledge in through the five channels of the senses ; one, the Sankhya, looks to the emotions, and seeks the sources of pleasure, pain, and the neutral state of indifference, in which states alone it holds external nature to consist; one, the Vedantin, seeks only to determine what Is or Is Not. Besides the philosophy of the Darsanas, there were the teachings of several sects ; among which the most important in their influence on thought was that of the Buddhists, chief opponents of the Brahmans. Their founder, Buddha Sakya Muni, began his teaching at an uncertain date, but it prevailed in India and Ceylon in the third century before Christ, and was introduced into China A.D. 61. Though the Brahmans finally prevailed in India, the Buddhists he4d their own in Ceylon, Burmah and China. They denied the existence of the One First Cause represented by the Brahma who gave forth Brahma, Vishnu and Siva to create, preserve, destroy ; One who is All in All, and of whom all forms of divinity — Indra, the Heavens with his thunderbolt and thousand eyes ; Surya, the sun ; Agni, fire ; Pavana, wind ; Varuna, ocean — are manifestations Not less were the elements of human life and death such manifestations oi the God in all, — Ganasa, wisdom, perfecter of work ; Lakshmi,

8 INTRODUCTION.

goddess of prosperity, formed by the churning of the sea ; Saraswati, goddess of learning ; and Yama, judge of the dead.

Epic and dramatic poetry form also a part of Sanskrit litera ture. The two great Sanskrit epics are the Ramayana, or Adventures of Rama (one of the incarnations of Vishnu), and the Maha-bharata ; both of them less ancient than the Vedas, but both so old that, like the Vedas, they were long preserved by oral tradition before they were committed to writing. The Maha-bharata is in eighteen books, containing altogether 220,000 lines, and is a collection of national legends. In old Indian legend there were two dynasties of the north; those of the Sun, those of the Moon. Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, was of the line of the Sun ; Bharata, the hero of the chief story in the Maha-bharata, was of the line of the Moon.

The Bhugavad-Gita is an episode in the Maha-bharata, a divine song in the form of a calm dialogue on eighteen subjects held between Krishna, the eighth Avatar of Vishnu, and his pupil Arjuna, while tumult of battle raged around them.

The great dramatist in Sanskrit literature was Kalidasa, author of the Sakuntala. The oldest known collection of Fables is the Pancha-Tantra, a collection into Five Tantras or sections, which is represented by the book now in the reader's hand, The Hitopadesa, or Friendly Instructor, in four books. The purpose of its interwoven fables and maxims was to present, in a way likely to win and keep attention, a system of good counsel for right training of a prince in all the chief affairs of life. It comes to us from a far place and time as a manual of worldly wisdom, inspired throughout by the religion of its place and time. There are, in fact, so far as concern the great forces of Nature, but accidental differences between the cities of men or the ant-hills of to-day and yesterday. When allowance has been made for some real progress in civilization, as in the recognition of the place of women in society, every fable in the Hitopadesa can still be applied to human character ; every maxim quoted from the wise men of two or three thousand years ago, when parted from the local accidents of form, might find its time for being quoted now in church, at home, or upon 'Change.

H. M.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

THE following translation, begun and completed this summer during a temporary residence at Bath, is a faithful portrait of a beautiful work, which in the opinions of many learned men, natives and Europeans, with whom I had the honour to converse upon the subject before I left Bengal, is the Sanskrit original of those celebrated fables, which after passing through most of the Oriental languages, ancient and modern, with various alterations to accommodate them to the taste and genius of those for whose benefit or amusement they were designed, and under different appellations, at length were introduced to the know ledge of the European world with a title importing them to have been originally written by Pilpay, or Bidpai, an ancient Brahman ; two names of which, as far as my inquiries have extended, the Brahmans of the present times are totally ignorant. Sir William Jones, whose surprising talents are ever employed in seeking fresh sources of knowledge, and promoting their cultivation, in an elegant discourse delivered by him the 26th of February, 1786, io TRANSLATORS PREFACE.

since my return from India, at a meeting of the Society for inquiring into the History, civil and natural, the Antiquities, Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia, expresses his sentiments upon this subject in the following words : —

"Their (the Hindoos) Niti-Sastra, or System of Ethics, is yet preserved, and the fables of Vishnu- Serma, whom we ridiculously call Pilpay, are the most beautiful, if not the most ancient, collection of Apologues in the world. They were first translated from the Sanskrit in the sixth century, by Buzerchumihr,or " bright as the sun/' the chief physician, and afterwards the Vizier of the great Anushirwan, and are extant under various names in more than twenty languages, but their original title is Hitopadesa, or ''amicable instruction ;" and as the very existence of yEsop, whom the Arabs believe to have been an Abyssinian, appears rather doubtful, I am not disin clined to suppose that the first moral fables which appeared in Europe were of Indian or Ethiopian origin."

Granting the Hitopadesa be the work it is supposed to be, to save the learned reader the trouble of re ferring to other books to trace its history, I have here brought all I have collected upon the subject under one view.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 11

thus : " The ancient Brahmins of India, after a great deal of time and labour, compiled a treatise (which they called Kurtuk Dumnik*) in which were inserted the choicest treasures of wisdom, and the perfectest rules for governing a people. This book they presented to their Rajahs, who kept it with the greatest secrecy and care. About the time of Mahommed s birth, or the latter end of the sixth century, Noishervan the Just, who then reigned in Persia, discovered a great inclination to see that book : for which purpose one Burzuvia, a physician, who had a surprising talent in learning several languages, particularly the Sanskrit, was introduced to him as the properest person to be employed to get a copy thereof. He went to India ; where, after some years' stay, and great trouble, he procured it. It was trans lated into the Pehluvi language by him, and Buzrjumehr the Vizier. Noi-hervan ever after, and all his successors, the Persian kings, had this book in high esteem, and took the greatest care to keep it secret. At last Abu Jaffer Mansour zu Nikky, who was the second Khaliff of the Abassi reign, by great search got a copy thereof in the Pehluvi language, and ordered Iman Hossan Abdal MokafTa, who was the most learned of the age, to translate it into Arabic. This prince ever after made it his guide,

* The Karattaka and Damannka of the following work.

and not only in affairs relating to the government, but in private life also.

" In the year 380 of the Hegira, Sultan Mahmud Ghazi put it into verse. And afterwards, in the year 515, by order of Bheram Shah ben Massaud, that which Abdal Mokaffa had translated was retranslated into Persic, by Abul Mala Nasser Allah Mustofi ; and this is that Kulila Dumna which is now extant. As this latter had too many Arabic verses and obsolete phrases in it, Molana Ali ben Hosseiri Vaez. at the request of Emir Soheli, keeper of the seals to Sultan Hossein Mirza, put it into a more modern style, and gave it the title of Anuar Soheli.

" In the year 1002, the Great Moghol Jalal o' Din Mahommed Akbar ordered his own secretary and vizier, the learned Abul Fazl, to illustrate the obscure passages, abridge the long digressions, and put it into such a style as would be most familiar to all capacities ; which he accordingly did, and gave it the name of Ayar Danish, or the Criterion of Wisdom."

From other sources I have drawn the following conclusions : — That in the year 1709, the Kulila Dumna, the Persian version of Abul Mala Nasser Allah Mustofi made in the 51 5th year of the Hegira, was translated into French with the title of " Les Conseils et les Maximes de Pilpay, Philosophe Indien, sur les divers Etats de la Vie/' This edition re-

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 13

sembles the Hitopadesa more than any other I have seen, and is evidently the immediate original of the English " Instructive and entertaining Fables of Pilpay, an ancient Indian Philosopher," which in 1775 had gone through five editions.

The Anuar Soheli above mentioned, about the year 1 540 was rendered into the Turkish language , and the translator is said to have bestowed twenty years' labour upon it. In the year 1724, this edition M. Galland began to translate into French, and the four first chapters were then published ; but in the year 1778 M. Cardonne completed the work in three volumes, giving it the name of " Contes et Fables Indiennes de Bidpai et de Lokman ; traduites d'Ali Tchelebi-ben Saleh auteur Turk."

If the Hitopadesa of Vishnu-Serma be, as we have every reason to conclude, the prototype of the several compositions which have been mentioned, its age is tolerably ascertained to be upwards of eleven hundred years. Few Sanskrit books bear either the name of the real author or the date of the year in which they were written ; and it is to circum stantial evidence we must generally trust for the proof of either.

In executing this work I have scrupulously adhered to the text ; and I have preferred drawing a picture of which it may be said — " I can suppose it a strong like ness, although I am unacquainted uiih the original,"

to a flattering portrait, where characteristic features, because not altogether consonant to European taste, must have been sacrificed to the harmony of com position.

CHARLES WILKINS.

Contents

PAcr

AUTHOR'S INTRODUC-IION 17

Chapter I. The Acquisition Of A Friend

FABLE

I. The story of the pigeons, the crow, the mouse, the tortoise,

and the deer 29.

II. The traveller and the tiger 31

III. The deer, the jackal, and the crow 45

IV. The blind jacknl, the cat, and the birds . . -47 V. The history of Hiranyaka the mouse .... 64

VI. The old man and his young wife 66

VII. The huntsman, the deer, the boar, the serpent, and the

jackal 7$

VIII. The Rajah's son and the merchant's wife .... 87

IX. The jackal and the elephant ...... 9°

Chapter II. The Separation Of A Favourite

I. The story of the bull, the two jackals, and the lion . . 99

II. The ape and the wedge 107

III. The thief, the ass, and the dog 108

IV. The lion, the mouse, and the cat 124

V. The poor woman and the bell . . . . .127 VI. The adventures of Kandarpaketu, comprising the story 01 the cowkeeper, the barber, and their wives; and the history of the merchant whose avarice occasioned the loss of all his wealth 1 34

16 CONTENTS

FABLE FACE

VII. The farmer's wife and her two gallants .... 140

VIII. The crow, the golden chain, and the black serpent . . 142

IX. The lion and the rabbit 143

X. The partridges and the sea . ... 152

Chapter III. Of Disputing

I. The history of the geese and the peacocks . . .168

II. The birds and the monkeys . . . . . 171

III. The ass dressed in a tiger's skin . . . . j 73

IV. The elephants and the rabbits . . . . . .175

V. The goose and the crow . . . . . . .181

VI. The Varttaka and the crow ... . 182

VII. The wheelwright and his wife ...... 183

VIII. The blue jackal 193

IX. The man who sacrificed his own son .... 205

X. The barber who killed a beggar 212

Chapter IV. Of Making Peace

I. Continuation of the history of the geese and the peacocks . 227

II. The tortoise and the two geese . ..... 228

III. The three fish , 229

IV. The merchant and his artful wife 230

V. The boobies and weasel ....... 232

VI. The mouse and the hermit ...... 236

VII. The booby and the crab 237

VIII. The Brahman who brake the pots and pans . . . 240

IX. The two giants ........ 242

X. The Brahman and his goat .251

XL The camel, the crow, the tiger, and the jackal . . • 253

XII. The ol<i serpent and the frogs 257

XIII. The Brahman and his weasel . 266

FABLES AND PROVERBS.

AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.

Reverence to Ganes ! * Reverence to Saraswatee ! t

' MAY the completion, through the mercy of Dhoorjatee,t on whose head is planted a crescent among the frothy streams of Janhavee,§ be for the edification of the worthy !

* The god of prudence and policy.

t The goddess of harmony and the arts.

£ One of the titles of Seeva, the Deity in his destroying quality. The word s'gnifies, he who iveareth his hair bound about hi: head in the form of a tiara, as it is now worn by those penitents who are known in India by the name of Yogees or Sanyasees.

§ A name of the river Ganga, or the Ganges, as it is erroneously called. This river is supposed to flow from the hair of Seeva. The truth seems to be, that Seeva is the name of the mountain in which is the source of that river ; for amongst other epithets usually given to that Deity, is found that of Geereesa, Lord of mountains ; and his consort is commonly called Doorga, a place of difficult access, and Parvatee, a patronymic formed from farvata, a mountain,

'This work, entitled Hitopadesa,* affordeth elegance in the Sanskrit t idioms, in every part variety of language, and inculcateth the doctrine of prudence and policy.

' The wise man should study the acquisition of science and riches, as if he were not subject to sick ness and death ; but to the duties of religion he should attend, as if death had seized him by the hair.

4 Knowledge produceth humility ; from humility proceedeth worthiness ; from worthiness riches are acquired ; from riches religion, | and thence happi ness.

'Of all things knowledge is esteemed the most precious treasure ; because of its incapacity to be stolen, to be given away, or ever to be consumed.

' Knowledge introduceth a man to acquaintance ; and, as the humble stream to the ocean, so doth it conduct him into the hard-acquired presence of the prince, whence fortune floweth.

* A compound of hita, health, welfare, upa, a preposition, implying proximity, and desa signifying a showing or pointing. The common acceptation of the word is useful, or beneficial, instruction.

t The learned language of the Brahmans is so called. It is a com pound of san (the m of sam being, by rule, changed to n, before a dental s ; as the m of the Latin com before the same letter in the word construction}^ a preposition signifying completion, and skrita (for krita), done, made, finished.

% According to our mode of thinking this seems odd ; but where religion consists in sacrifices, and other expensive ceremonies, a poor man hath but a sad chance of providing for his future happiness,

; There are two species of knowledge in use : the knowledge of arms, and the knowledge of books. The first is the scoff of the wise, whilst the last is for ever honoured.

' As the impressions made upon a new vessel are not easily to be effaced, so here youth are taught prudence through the allurement of fable.'

This work is divided under four heads : — The Acquisition of a Friend. The Separation of a Favourite. Of Disputing. Of making Peace. And it is, chiefly, drawn and written from the Tantra and other Sastras.*

On the banks of the river Bhageeratheet there is a remarkable city called Pataneeputra4 where there was formerly a Rajah, endued with every noble quality, whose name was Sudarsana.§ One day he heard the two following verses, as they were re peating by some one :

* The translator has reason to suppose that these words extend only to the maxims, which are, in the original, in verse, and are known to be quotations from other authors ; particularly from the Mahabharat, the Smreeiee-sastra of Manoo, the Geeta, and, as the author himself says, the Tantra- sastra.

t The river Ganges.

£ An ancient name for the city which ft now called Patna.

§ All the proper names throughout this work are, like this, signifi cant They have an awkward appearance when translated, which is the reason so few have been rendered into English. The names of per sons in India are, to this day, all significant, and, for the most part, derived from :he Sanskrit.

20 THE H110PADESA :

1 He who is not possessed of such a book as will dispel many doubts, point out hidden treasures, and is, as it were, a mirror of all things, is even an ignorant man.

'Youth, abundant wealth, high birth, and inex perience, are, each of them, the source of ruin. What then must be the fate of him in whom all four are combined ? '

The Rajah had no sooner heard these lines than he began to consider, with an afflicted heart, the situation of his sons, who were yet unacquainted with books, and wandering in the paths of error.

* What benefit is there in a son who is neither learned nor virtuous ! Or, of what use is a sightless eye ? Such an eye is but pain ! '

' He is truly born, by whose birth his generation is exalted ; or else, who is there in this transitory life, who being dead, is not born again ? ' *

So it is said :

' Of the child unborn, the dead, and the fool, the two first, and not the last, are the least to be lamented ; for the two first cause but a transient sorrow, whilst the last is an eternal plague/

* The reader, in this and similar passages, will not fail to recollect that it is a Hindoo who speaks, fully persuaded of the- metempsychosis.

'One child of genius is a blessing; not so even a hundred fools. A single moon dispelleth darkness better than a host of stars.

' The child of him, whose transgressions are expiated by penances performed at places of holy pilgrimage, should be obedient, prosperous, virtuous, and happy.'

And it is said also :

'An influx of riches, and constant health; a wife who is dear to one, and one who is of kind and gentle speech ; a child who is obedient, and useful knowledge, are, my son, the six pleasures of life.

'A father who contracted! debts is an enemy, and a mother false to her bed ; a beautiful wife is an enemy; an ignonant son is an enemy.

' Learning to the inexperienced is a poison ; eating upon a full stomach is a poison ; the society of the vulgar is a poison ; a young wife to an old man is a poison.

'A man is respected, even for the merits of his son. Let the cane* of the bow be ever so clean, deficient in other qualities, what will it do ? '

* In the original the word which is translated cane (vangs) signifies, not only a bamboo, of which they make their bows, but also a race or family. The Hindoo authors are but too apt to play upon words, and are always happy to apply a term that has two meanings diametrically opposite, which is, very often, exceedingly perplexing to a translator.

Alas ! my son, that so many nights have sweetly passed away, and thou art still untaught ; wherefore, in the society of the learned, thou sinkest like an ox in the mire.

Then how shall these my sons be now rendered accomplished ? when it is said,

' The age, the actions, the wealth, the knowledge, and even the death, of every one is determined in his mother's womb.

'The determined fate of all beings, let them be ever so great, inevitably happeneth. Nakedness is the fate of Neelakant,* and of Harif sleeping on a great serpent.

' What is not to be, that is not to be ; if it be to

* One of the titles of Seeva.

t Hari is one of the titles of Vishnu, the Deity in his preserving quality. Nearly opposite Sultan-gunge, a considerable town in the province of Bahar in the East Indies, there stands a rock of granite, lorming a small island in the midst of the Ganges, known to Europeans by the name of the rock of Jehangucery, which is highly worthy of the traveller's notice for a vast number of images carved in relief upon every part of its surface. Amongst the rest there is Hari, of a gigantic size, recumbent upon a coiled serpent, whose heads, which are nume rous, the artist has contrived to spread into a kind of canopy over the sleeping god ; and from each of its mouths issues a forked tongue, seeming to threaten instant death to any whom rashness might prompt to disturb him. The whole figure lies almost clear of the block on which it is hewn. It is finely imagined, and executed with great skill. The Hindoos are taught to believe, that at the end of every kalpa (crea tion or formation), all things are absorbed in the Deity, and that in the interval of another creation he repose th himself upon the serpent sesha (duration), who is also called ananta (endless). The allegory is too plain to require any further explanation.

come to pass, it cannot be otherwise. This reasoning is an antidote. Why doth not the afflicted drink of it ? '

But such are the idle sentiments of certain men who admit not of works ; for,

'Whilst a man confideth in providence, he should not slacken his own exertions ; for without labour he is unworthy to obtain the oil from the seed.

'Fortune attendeth that lion amongst men who exerteth himself. They are weak men who declare fate the sole cause.