158 Analytical Account of the Pancha Tantra. 



sPATi, UsANAS (Sucra), Parasara, Vyasa, and Chanakya.* It is then 

 stated, that Vishnu Sarma, having extracted the essence of all the most 

 celebrated works of this class, composed the Niti t Sdstra, in five Tantras, 

 01- chapters. We are then introduced to the frame work of the whole, the 

 education of the King's sons by Vishnu-Sarma ; on which occasion the 

 apologues were composed. This is introduced in the Hitupadesa, but with 

 some variations ; and, as it affords an example of the concurrences and 

 disagreements of the two collections, I shall give it at length from the 

 Pancha Tantra. 



" There is a city in the Southern country, named' MUiildrdpyam, the 

 king of which, learned, munificent, distinguished among princes and 

 scholars, was named Awaka Sacti. He had three sons, youths of no 

 capacity, nor diligence : Vasu Sacti, Bhadra Sacti, X and Ananta 

 Sacti. Observing them averse from study, the king called his counsellors, 

 and said to them, " you are aware that my sons are little inclined to 

 application, and incapable of reflection. When I contemplate them, my 

 kingdom is full of thorns, and yields me no pleasure. It is said by the wise, 

 ' Better is a son unborn ; better is a dead son, than one who is a fool. The 

 first may cause affliction for a little while, but a fool, as long as life endures.' 

 Again, ' of what use is a cow who has no milk with her calf; of what use 

 is a son who has neitlier knowledge, nor virtue ? Better it is, that a wife 

 be barren, that she bear daughters or dead cliildren, and that the family 



• Authors of very different character. The first is the Legislator, whose code has been 

 rendered into English by Sir William .lones. The works of Va'chaspati, the teacher of the 

 Gods, and of Sucra, the preceptor of the (daityas) Titans, have not, it is believed, been found 

 on earth.* Para's'ara, the father of Vya'sa, is the reputed author of an institute of laws, and 

 the chief interlocutor of the Vishim-Purdn'a. To C'ha'nakya is ascribed a treatise on (NUij 

 regal polity, which, though no longer met with, is cited by authors of some antiquity, as Dandi, 

 in the Dasa Kunnira. Cha'nakya was the minister of Chandragupta, and the chief agent 

 in his elevation to the throne of Magad'ha. 



•)• Sir Wm. Jones translated the term Niti by Ethics, and he has been followed by all Sanscrit 

 scholars, in the interpretation. This is not, however, the precise import of the term. As applied 

 to a class of writings, or division of science, it would be, more correctly, polity, the art of regal 

 administration, both in peace and war, including the moral, as well as political, obligations of a 

 sovereign. 



X In some copies, Ugra-sacti H.T.C. 



• Va'chesi'ati is the same with VrIhaspati, a'> Usanai is iilentifitid with Sucra. In-titulesof law, ascribed fo 

 VrihaspatI and to Us'ana», are extant. — H.T.C. 



