1. The Sanskrit literature has reached its apogee in its didactic poetry, with its polished reflective stanzas of elevated satakas, or highly finished subhasitas which are pithy aphorisms of proverbial philosophy and are like miniature word-paintings. Deep thoughts are masterfully incorporated in the two-verse measures-slokas. We find hundreds of such stanzas not only in the Mahabharata but throughout the whole range of Sanskrit literature. They are not only collected in special compendia (subhasita sarigraha, subhasitasandoha etc.) but are scattered throughout the entire Sanskrit literature. The poets, it seems, used to weave into their masterworks such didactic stanzas.
2. The subject and practice of courtezanship has often been not only touched upon but also accurately and precisely described in the classical Sanskrit literature. In consequence, we find hundreds of stanzas dealing with this topic. The following Chapters are comprised of aphorisms, maxims, or thoughts found by the writer worthy of quoting.
3. Aphorisms, like proverbs, however quaintly expressed contain the essence of some moral truth or practical lesson, They are drawn from real life and are generally the fruit of philosophy grafted on the stem of experience. They furnish an index to the spirit of a nation and are the result of its civilization. Maxims, being the condensed good sense of nations and men, reveal peculiar traits of their character, while the wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved by quotations. Every aphorism, maxim or quotation, contributes something to the stability or enlargement of a language. Though Sanskrit is one of the richest languages in the world it still seems that a collection, however incomplete, of its aphorisms, maxims and quotations on one subject, cannot fail to throw some further side-light on the genius, wit and spirit of the Indian people.
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