This work aims at teaching the principles of polity guided by morality, presenting them in the agreeable form of stories written mainly in prose interspersed with verse. It belongs to that class of compositions which imparts instructions through fables inspired by the wisdom of its place and time. Yet every fable in this work and every maxim drawn from it can still be applied to human characters irrespective of time and place.
The work is divided into four books: The book I describes how to win friends. The book II deals with the circumstances leading to the loss of friends. The book III relates war and the book IV to conciliation. The object of the work is to train the young mind in the chief affairs of life by acquainting them with the accumulated experiences of past ages. The work is very interesting as well as instructive.
This edition contains the text, the sanskrit commentary "Marma Prakasika", a full translation and notes in English. All difficult words and expressions have been explained in easy Sanskrit and English. A few slokas have been interpreted in a new way and an attempt has been made to give a meaning to a few quotation from Kamandaka, hitherto given up by commentators as knotty.
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