Wondrous Whispers of Wisdom from Ancient India: Quotations (Part- 2)

About the Book WONDROUS WHISPERS OF WISDOM FROM ANCIENT INDIA VOLUME TWO, like its predecessor volume, picks out the pearls of wisdom from ancient literature of India, which offer a code of conduct, a philosophy of social and ethical relations and a lively teaching of morals so crucial to the society in the new millennium caught up in a turmoil of decaying values. <> The selections in this volume include maxims from four great works of antiquity: Panchatantra, Hitopadesa, Tirukkural and Sukraniti.

Every aspect of life has been touched in the maxims of these four works.

The book gives a rich and varied fare to give practical guidance and lift up the spirits of all: business executives and professionals, educationists, social reformers and public men and women who are stressed out by the intractable problems and immobilised by the frightening dilemmas facing modern society.

About the Author Vadakaymadom Krishna Iyer Subramanian (b. 1930, Kerala, India) is an eminent scholar, whose life mission is to present to the world the treasures of ancient India, in the fields of art, literature, philosophy and religion.

He has already translated several ancient texts into English.

These include: Saundaryalahari, Sivananda-Lahari, Sacred Songs of India, Maxims of Chanakya and Sri Rudraprasna.

As a consultant for holistic health and spiritual development, he has spelt out the Hindu regimens in this regard in his popular book: The Holistic Way to Health, Happiness and Harmony. Subramanian's prolific literary output covers a variety of subjects ranging from astrology to art. He has been an astropalmic counsellor for over 35 years.

A retired officer of the Indian Audit and Ac-counts Service (which he joined in 1953), Subramanian is also a reputed painter, who has held 22 one-man shows and whose paintings (some of them in the Chandigarh Museum) have won wide acclaim from leading art critics of India.

Subramanian who has travelled extensively in India, now lives in the United States of America.

Introduction WONDROUS WHISPERS OF WISDOM FROM ANCIENT INDIA VOLUME TWO continues the picking of pearls from the vast unsavoured treasures of the literary heritage of ancient India which commenced in Volume One.

The selections in the first volume included words of wisdom orally handed down the centuries known as Subhashitas (wellspoken words) and works of three great Masters of the Sanskrit language: Veda Vyasa (author of Mahabharata), Sankaracharya (the advaitic philosopher), and Bhartrhari (the philosopher-king of Ujjain).

The selections in this volume include maxims from four great works of antiquity: Panchatantra, Hitopadesa, Tirukkural and Sukraniti.

The Panchatantra is a collection of stories and legends, in five books compiled by an author known as Vishnusarman. Dr. Hertel, the famous indological scholar, believes that the original work was composed in Kashmir, about 200 B.C., though many of the stories in it were already well-known.

Panchatantra was first translated from Sanskrit in the 6th century A.D. by Buzerchumihr. There have been several translations and revised editions since then, one of the most well-known being that by Arthur W. Ryder, the well-known American Oriental scholar.

hot pull The Panchatantra stories, like the Aesop's fables, have tried jean to preach codes of conduct that make life richer and happier and more meaningful.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages