He who has employment, although he have much power and reputation, should not deceive the king; he should be able to disclose what is good or what is bad. It is a difficult matter to point out what is for the king's advantage or agreeable to his mind.[1]
24.
He is no man who overcomes the vile; he is not called a man who is assiduous in a trifle; he who achieves something great is a man. Who scandalises a king, although he conquers, is not a conqueror; he is not noble who suppresses the conquered.[2]
↑Is he a minister who, to please the king, counsels what ought not to be done as though it ought to be done? Better wound the feelings of the king, but not cause his destruction by what should not be done." —Hitopadeśa, iii. 107.
The following, quoted in "Indian Wisdom," is from Mâgha's Śiśupâlabadha, xix. 114—
"Dâdadoduddaduddâdî dâdâdodûdadîdadoḥ
Duddâdaṁ dadade dudde dadâdadado dadah."
With regard to the artificial character of verses of this kind, Monier Williams remarks: "Some of these poems, especially the Raghuvaṃśa, Kumârasambhara, Meghadûta, and Ritusaṃbhâra of Kâlidàsa, abound in truly poetical and display great fertility of imagination and power of description; but it cannot be denied that even in these works of the greatest of Indian poets there are occasional fanciful conceits, combined with a too studied artificial elaboration of diction, and a constant tendency to what a European would consider an almost puerile love for alliteration and playing upon words. Some of the other poems, such as the Kirâtârjunîya, Śiśupâlabadha, &c, are not wanting in occasional passages containing poetical feeling, striking imagery, and noble sentiment, but they are artificial to a degree quite opposed to European canons of taste, the chief aim of the composers being to exhibit their artistic skill in bringing out the capabilities of the Sanskrit language, its ductility, its adaptation to every kind of style, from the most diffuse to the most concise, its power of compounding words, its intricate grammatical structure, its complex system of metres, and the fertility of its resources in the employment of rhyme, rhythm, and alliteration." Extreme cases of such artificial structures are those in the examples given above, and the discovery of the meaning of the verses is only possible with the help of a native commentary.
