चाणक्यराजनीतिः /46

INTRODUCTION
 

 
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Es ist... nicht richtig, in ihnen [Sprüchen] "Volks-

poesie" zu sehen und sie mit Sprichwörtern gleichzusetzen,

die von Mund zu Mund gehen, ohne dass an einen einzelnen

Autor zu denken ist. Diese Sprüche sind vielmehr in littera-

rischen Kreisen entstanden, sie stammen teils aus Werken der

Litteratur, teils rühren sie von Verfassern her, deren Namen

vergessen worden sind.' 1

The analysis of each aphorism

shows in any case that it is wrong to say that the great

majority of aphorisms belong to popular poetry, the

authorship of which cannot be traced. Some of the

aphorisms certainly belong to this category, but form
a definite minority.
 

a definite minority.
 
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THE VERSIFIED CĀŅAKYA-RĀJA-NĪTI
 

 
14. Scholars who were dealing with the problem

of the composition of the so-called Cāṇakya aphorisms

and the origin of Kautilya's Arthaśāstra referred to the

following passage found at the end of the contents of

Kautilya's Arthaśāstra: śāstra-samuddeśaḥ pañcadaśādhi-

karaṇāni, sapañcāśad-adhyāya-śatam, sāśīti-prakaraṇa-śatam,

şaṭ śloka-sahasrāṇīti 2 (such are the contents of the

science: there are on the whole 15 adhikaraṇa-s [books],

150 adhyaya-s [chapters], 180 prakarana-s [sections],

6000 śloka-s). They also referred to the following

obscure sentence in Dandin's Daśakumaracarita: adhişva

tavad dandanitim. iyam idānim ācārya-vişnuguptena maur-

yarthe ṣaḍbhiḥ śloka-sahasraiḥ samkṣiptā 3 (now ācārya
 

 
1
 

 
op. cit., p. 136.
 

 
3 In BSS 10, p. 131. 10-2.
 

 
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2 K, p. 5.16-7.