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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. Whbat have we the people of the twentyfirst century to do with obsolete proverbial literature, some may ask. The answer is quite simple. Wheather we look toi 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 of every chilliads 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 won practica way at home. Legends, stories and proverbs are her store house; 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 soc-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 indians as do the proverbs. Proverbs are mercillesss in their criticism of life, and they always aim at putting things right. But prverbs satire is pronounced over folloy and over wickedness. In provernb lies buried an endless store of criticism, encouragement, humour, sorrow and complaint, referring to all classes of manking from the unborn child to the grey-haired veteran. The first -of kind collection of indian proverbs from all major ethenic groups and regions will surely fill a collosal gap in documenting this important area of study. TOTAL PP 2750. Thematically organised numbered entries, index, size 22 14 dcm. Cloth binding, jacket, boxed, ISBN 81-7755-081-0
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