Five Discourses on Worldly Wisdom

By Viṣṇuśarman
Translated by Patrick Olivelle

The king despairs of his idle sons, so he hires a learned brahmin who promises to make their lessons in statecraft unmissable. The lessons are disguised as short stories, featuring mainly animal protagonists. Many of these narratives have traveled across the world, and are known in the West as Aesop’s fables.

There’s no other treasure like giving alms.
No pleasure compares to a content heart.
Is there an adornment like good conduct?
No gain on earth can compare with good health.
If it weren’t for that splendid medicine,
the company of friends,
Is there a man who could endure the loss
of wealth or of loved ones?
Not in mother or wife, brother or son,
Does one find the sort of relaxation
that one finds in a friend.
MITRA—
These two syllables of the word for ‘friend’,*
Who is it that has created this gem?
A shelter against sorrow, grief, and fear,
A vessel of love and trust.’ [95]

562 pp. | ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-6208-0 | ISBN-10: 0-8147-6208-5 | Co-published by New York University Press and JJC Foundation

Excerpts

“On War and Peace: The Story of the Crows and the Owls”
(Book III, pp. 353–375)
(32 pp, 3.83mb)

Download Ex ce rpts (pdf)
Download CSL Front Matter (pdf)
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Download the title page and table of contents and one chapter of the book (in English and Sanskrit on facing pages), bundled together as a .pdf file. You can also download the CSL Front Matter (6pp, 1.3mb). It describes how we transliterate the Sanskrit text in the Roman alphabet and includes a guide to pronunciation. It also explains our system of representing phonetic fusion (sandhi).

You can set Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the Sanskrit text and translation in facing page view. Simply go to “View” in the toolbar, select “Page Layout” and click on “Facing.”

About the Translator

Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions, University of Texas. He has also translated Life of the Buddha for the CSL.

eCSL Word Frequency Counts

Top 50 Verbs

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Said	255
2	Come	97
3	Asked	67
4	Say	67
5	Came	64
6	Go	64
7	Heard	62
8	Went	62
9	Get	60
10	Saw	60

11	Became	55
12	See	52
13	Replied	51
14	Happen	51
15	Know	44
16	Find	44
17	Saying	44
18	Killed	44
19	Take	42
20	Lived	42

21	Think	42
22	Seeing	40
23	Happened	40
24	Told	39
25	Began	36
26	Live	35
27	Kill	35
28	Give	35
29	Look	32
30	Become	31

31	Thinking	31
32	Going	29
33	Got	27
34	Turn	26
35	Turned	26
36	Took	25
37	Cut	25
38	Started	24
39	Bring	24
40	Fell	23

41	Found	22
42	Speak	22
43	Seen	22
44	Want	22
45	Returned	22
46	Gone	22
47	Gave	20
48	Remained	20
49	Given	20
50	Remain	19

Top 50 Nouns

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Man (men)	347
2	One	200
3	Friend(s)	191
4	King	116
5	Damanaka	99
6	Crow(s)	94
7	People	88
8	Way	73
9	Lion	72
10	Heart	68

11	Water	62
12	Day	62
13	Place	62
14	Story	60
15	Hiranyaka	60
16	Wife	59
17	Food	58
18	Pingalaka	57
19	Lord	55
20	Tree	55

21	Life	55
22	Two	54
23	Word(s)	52
24	Brahmin	50
25	Reason	47
26	Sanjivaka	45
27	World	45
28	Wealth	45
29	Money	45
30	Jackal	42

31	House	42
32	Mind	41
33	Body	40
34	Majesty	40
35	Death	39
36	Enemy(ies)	39
37	Karataka	38
38	Forest	37
39	Chiranjivin	37
40	Hand	35

41	Thing	35
42	Power	34
43	Fortune	32
44	End	32
45	Three	31
46	Hunter	31
47	Mouse	30
48	Monkey	29
49	Manner	29
50	Ass	29