This page has not been fully proofread.

16
 
CĀŅAKYA-RĀJA-NĪTI
 
d'histoire naturelle.' 1 It may also be added that the
collection of Cāṇakya's aphorisms found in the Tibetan
Tanjur is a classical text of Canakya's aphorisms
belonging to the Cāṇakya-rāja-niti version (CR), name-
ly the CRT text; it was translated into Tibetan by the
Indian Pandit Prabhākaraśrīmitra (Prabakasrimitra)
and the Tibetan Bhikṣu Rin-chen bzan-po of žhu hen
(Ratnabhadra) in the tenth century A.D.2 and that the
Nītisāra of the Garuda-purana is another text of the
Cāṇakya-rāja-nīti-śāstra (CR) version.³
 
13. It is impossible to establish the extent to which
the various aphorisms and maxims were formulated by
an authority on polity or were part of popular poetry.
O. Kressler said: 'Ohne Zweifel handelt es sich... bei der
weitaus überwiegenden Mehrzahl der vorliegenden Strophen
um sprachlich wie gedanklich ganz anspruchslose Volkspoesie;
die einzelnen, unter einander in keiner inneren Beziehung
stehenden Sprüche gingen von Mund zu Mund, ohne von
eigentlichen Dichtern herzustammen. Dass dann eine später
veranstaltete Sammlung solcher Verse mehr oder weniger Con-
tradictorisches bietet ist nahe zu selbstverständlich.' 4 M.
Winternitz did not accept Kressler's theory and wrote:
 
1 cf. CM, p. xv.
 
2 cf. L. Sternbach, 'The Tibetan Cāṇakya-raja-nīti-śāstram,"
ABORI, 42, pp. 99-122.
 
3 cf. L. Sternbach, The Caṇakya-rāja-nīti-śästra and the
Brhaspati Samhitã of the Garuḍa-purāṇa,' ABORI, 38, pp. 58-110;
and An Unknown Canakya MS. and the Garuḍa-purāṇa,' IIJ,
 
6
 
1. 3, pp. 181-200.
 
4 cf. CKr, p. 27.