Encyclopaedia of Indian Proverbs

Why an encyclopaedia of Proverbs ? Why take so much trouble over these proverbs? Who cares for these things ? Perhaps some old grandmother while telling stories to children. What have we the people of the Twenty-first century to do with obsolete proverbial literature, some may ask. The answer is quite simple. Whether we look to the West or to the East we find that figurative speech always has great influence over the masses. This is true of India as any other nation.

A mother, or a home, does lay the foundation in every child’s heart for its future, which determines the moral life afterwards. But from where the mother gets her thoughts by which to educate her child. Does an Indian mother rebukes or comforts her child quoting from the Bhagvadgita, or the Upanishads ? The Indian mother has her own practical way at home. Legends, stories and proverbs are her storehouse; from these she obtains material for rebuking, for sneering, for warning, for encouraging, for comforting and for praising. The proverbs and maxims are India’s practical ethics. The Indian proverbs are not antiquarian curiosities, but living and stern realities, and hence perhaps more celestial than the so-called “Celestial Songs” of the Bhagavadgita.

By a good knowledge of Indian proverbs one is enabled, as it were, to feel the moral pulse of the Indian people, and a sound insight into the proverbial literature of India is like getting a unicroscope by which one can look deeply into the recesses of the Indian heart. Nothing else can throw so much light on the daily practice of the Indians as do the proverbs. Proverbs are merciless in their criticism of life, and they always aim at putting things right. By proverbs satire is pronounced over folly and over wickedness. In proverbs lies buried an endless store of criticism, encouragement, humour, sorrow and complaint, referring to all classes of mankind from the unborn child to the grey-haired veteran.

This first-of-its-kind collection of Indian proverbs from all major ethnic groups and regions will surely fill a colossal gap in documenting this important area of study.