Written by London Swaminathan
swami_48@yahoo.com
Date: 3 October 2018

 

Time uploaded in London –17-11  (British Summer Time)

 

Post No. 5503

 

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Bhartruhari’s Niti Sataka 11,12,13,14

 

There are some stories to illustrate the points raised in Bhatruhari’s slokas/verses. I will give some stories from Tamil and Sanskrit books.

 

शक्यो वारयितुं जलेन हुतभुक्च्छत्रेण सूर्यातपो
नागेन्द्रो निशिताग्कुशेन समदो दण्डेन गोगर्दभौ ।
व्याधिर्भेषजसङ्ग्रहैश्च विविधैर्मन्त्रप्रयोगैर्विषं
सर्वस्यौषधम् अस्ति शास्त्रविहितं मूर्खस्य नस्त्यौषधिम् ॥ 1.11 ॥

 

11:Fire can be quenched by water

Heat of the sun can be kept off by an umbrella

A wild elephant can be guided by a sharp hook

An or an ass by stick

Sickness can be subdued by the help of doctors

Poison by the charms.

A cure has been ordained by the shastras/scriptures for everything

But there is no medicine for the cure of fools.

 

Kamban is a great Tamil poet who composed over 10,000 verses to sing the glory of Rama. He lived about 1000 years ago in Tamil Nadu. Now and the he had some quarrels with the Chola King.

 

Then he composed a verse saying ,

 

Look! your country is only 24 Katham (appr. a katham is 10 miles). Do you think that the rest of the earth is covered by sea? O Kolli Hill ruler! Haven’t I got any other place to go?

 

When Kamban’s son Ambikapathy was killed by the Chola king, In another verse he asks,

Is there a tree branch which wont entertain a monkey?

 

A learned person will be welcomed by all.

 

Nannan was a cruel and stupid king. Once a teenage girl picked a mango that was fallen on the ground in the royal garden. Immediately she was presented before the king and he passed  death sentence on her. The whole town came together in support of the girl and apologized to the king on her behalf. He was adamant. Then they promised him to give gold equal to the weight f the girl. but yet he insisted that she should be executed. All the Tamil poets cursed him that his generation wont be sung by any Tamil poet. This happened 2000 years ago.

 

The greatest of the Indian poets, Kalidasa also had quarrels and arguments with his contemporary, king Bhoja. when he migrated to other countries Bhoja begged him to return. he had to use various tricks o bring him back.

साहित्यसङ्गीतकलाविहीनः
साक्षात्पशुः पुच्छविषाणहीनः ।
तृणं न खादन्नपि जीवमानस्
तद्भागधेयं परमं पशूनाम् ॥ 1.12 ॥

 

12, The man who has no sense of literature and music is like a beast, though he has not got horns and a tail; he may not eat grass, but yet he lives a life exactly like that of the cattle.

 

(The Mogul emperor Aurangzeb was a man who never liked music or literature; quite opposite to Akbar)

 

येषां न विद्या न तपो न दानं
ज्ञानं न शीलं न गुणो न धर्मः ।
ते मर्त्यलोके भुवि भारभूता
मनुष्यरूपेण मृगाश्चरन्ति ॥ 1.13 ॥

 

13.Those in whom is neither wisdom nor penance, nor liberality nor  knowledge, nor good disposition, nor virtue, nor righteousness may live in the world of mortals in the form of men, but pass through the world like beasts encumbering the earth.

वरं पर्वतदुर्गेषु
भ्रान्तं वनचरैः सह
न मूर्खजनसम्पर्कः
सुरेन्द्रभवनेष्वपि ॥ 1.14 ॥

 

14 it is better to wander in a mountain pass with the wild beasts than to live in the palace of the gods with a fool.

 

(There is a Tamil Verse: better live in forest infested with tigers than to live under a tyrant king)

 

शास्त्रोपस्कृतशब्दसुन्दरगिरः शिष्यप्रदेयागमा
विख्याताः कवयो वसन्ति विषये यस्य प्रभोर्निर्धनाः ।
तज्जाड्यं वसुधादिपस्य कवयस्त्वर्थं विनापीश्वराः
कुत्स्याः स्युः कुपरीक्षका हि मणयो यैरर्घतः पातिताः ॥ 1.15 ॥

 

If the learned and reputed poets, whose literary creations are worth learning and emulating by their disciples, are poor and wealthless in a kingdom, then the king himself must be stupid and insensitive! The wise and the learned are already great and famous even without any wealth. If an incompetent jeweller underestimates the value of a gem, then it is his fault and not of the gem.

Tamil poet Valluvar in the Tamil Veda Tirukkural says

Beasts are lower than men in the scale of creation; even so are fools before those who have delved deep in the mines of knowledge – Kural 410

 

Valluvar and Bhartruhari agree that ignorant people are like beasts.

 

In another couplet he says,

 

A deluded fool is shameless, aimless in life, unfeeling, languid. He does not safeguard anything- Kural 833

 

He also said,

In one brief birth a fool can gain

Enough hell for seven births of pain- Kural 835

 

–subham–