Hitopadesha: Difference between revisions

'''''Hitopadesha''''' ([[Sanskrit]]: हितोपदेशः, [[IAST]]: ''Hitopadeśa'', "Beneficial Advice") is an Indian text in the [[Sanskrit]] language consisting of [[fable]]s with both animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and advice on political affairs in simple, elegant language,<ref name="Narayana2005pix">{{cite book|author1=S. Narayana|author2=A.N.D. Haksar (Translator)|title=Hitopadesa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAWVBAW8dOsC |year=2005|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-93-5118-096-8|pages=ix–xiv}}</ref> and the work has been widely translated

Little is known about its origin. The surviving text is believed to be from the 12th-century, but was probably composed by [[Narayan Pandit|Narayana]] between 800 and 950 CE.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kaushik Roy|title=Hinduism and the Ethics of Warfare in South Asia: From Antiquity to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1IgAwAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-57684-0|page=151}}</ref> The oldest manuscript found in [[Nepal]] has been dated to the 14th century, and its content and style has been traced to the ancient Sanskrit treatises called the ''[[Panchatantra]]'' from much earlier.<ref name="Narayana2005pix"/><ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Panchatantra-Indian-literature#ref=ref119060 Panchatantra: INDIAN LITERATURE], Encyclopaedia Britannica</ref>

The authorship of the ''Hitopadesa'' has been contested. 19th-century Indologists attributed the text to [[Vishnu Sharma]], a narrator and character that often appears in its fables. Upon the discovery of the oldest known manuscript of the text in Nepal, dated to 1373, and the preparation of a [[critical edition]], scholars generally accept the authority of its two concluding verses. These verses mention Narayana as the author and a king called Dhavala Chandra as the patron of the text.<ref name="Narayana2005pix"/> But as no other work by this author is known, and since the ruler mentioned has not been traced in other sources, we know almost nothing of either of them. Dating the work is therefore problematic. There are quotations within it from 8th century works and other internal evidence may point to an [[East India]]n origin during the later [[Pala Empire]] (8th-12th century).<ref>''A.N.D.Haksar, ''Hitopadesa'',  [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BfgcHCEa3qMC&lpg=PT26&ots=S2mjyBdK6X&dq=hitopadesa&pg=PT26#v=onepage&q=hitopadesa&f=false Penguin, 2006]</ref>

   | [[The geese and the peacocks]]

   | [[The birds and the monkeys]]

   | [[The ass dressed in a tiger's skin]]

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The ''Hitopadesha'' was also a favourite among the scholars of the [[British Raj]]. It was the first Sanskrit book to be printed in the [[Nāgarī script|Nagari]] script, when it was published by [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] in [[Serampore]] in 1803–4, with an introduction by [[Henry Colebrooke]].<ref name=lanman/> This was followed by several later editions during the 19th century, including Max Müller's of 1884, which contains an interlinear literal translation.