Atha Nitishatakam

Bhartrihari occupies a prominent place among the ancient poets of Sanskrit literature. He belonged to the eminent tradition of Valmiki, Vyasa, and Kalidasa, the greatest poet and dramatist of Sanskrit literature. In Nitishatakam he deals with the themes of civic polity, a king's duty towards his subjects, the importance of education in society, the value philosophers, the savants, the relationship between parents and their children, between husbands and wives and between friends. Nitishatakam is a book of manners for kings and commoners alike, for the learners and the idiots, for the prosperous and the paupers and for the wise and the fool. The advice given in Nitishatakam is as relevant today as it was when the book was written.