Hitopadesa

Learning to a man is a name superior to beauty;
learning is better than hidden treasure.
Learning is a companion on a journey to a strange country,
learning is strength inexhaustible.
Learning is the source of renown,
and the fountain of victory in the senate.
Learning is a superior sight,
learning is a livelihood, and
a man without learning is as a beast of the field.

Hitopadesha (Sanskrit: हितोपदेशः, IAST: Hitopadeśa, "Beneficial Advice" ) is an Indian text in Sanskrit language consisting of fables with animal and human characters. It incorporates maxims, worldly wisdom and morals on political affairs in a simple, elegant language. The Hindu text has been popular, widely translated in many Indian languages, as well as languages found in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Little is known about the origin of the text. The surviving text is believed to be from the 12th-century, but probably composed by Narayana between 800 to 950 CE. Its 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 100 BCE to 500 CE.

The author of Hitopadesa has been contested. The 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 Nepalese mountains, and dated to 1373 CE, followed by the preparation of a critical edition, scholars generally accept two concluding verses as stating the author and patron of the text. These two verses mention Narayana as the author and a king called Dhavala Chandra as the patron of the text. 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, but the earliest manuscript dates from 1373. Internal evidence may point to an East Indian origin during the later Pala Empire (8th-12th century).

Narayana says that the purpose of creating the work is to encourage proficiency in Sanskrit expression (samskrita-uktishu) and knowledge of wise behaviour (niti-vidyam). This is done through the telling of moral stories in which birds, beasts and humans interact. Interest is maintained through the device of enclosed narratives in which a story is interrupted by an illustrative tale before resuming. The style is elaborate and there are frequent pithy verse interludes to illustrate the points made by the various speakers. On account of these, which provide by far the greater part of the text, the work has been described as an anthology of (sometimes contradictory) verses from widespread sources relating to statecraft.

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