Wednesday, April 08, 2026
Essentials
Panchatantra, introduction, tr. Dermot Killingley, Beginning Sanskrit, Vol. I (Newcastle upon Tyne: Grevatt & Grevatt, n.d.), p. x:
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Book-learning is endless, life is short, and obstacles are many. We should keep to what is essential, like swans extracting milk from water.The same, tr. Arthur W. Ryder:
Since verbal science has no final end,The same, tr. Chandra Rajan:
Since life is short, and obstacles impend,
Let central facts be picked and firmly fixed,
As swans extract the milk with water mixed.
Your Majesty, it is true that life is short, and it is beset by many obstacles. Knowledge knows no bounds, and it takes years to acquire it. Therefore, it is held that the essentials of knowledge have to be extracted and grasped, just as the noble bird, the swan, extracts the milk from the water it is mixed in.
