This treatise now in your hands has been a life-long study for me, when I and my husband conceived of this unique comparison of Punjabi proverbs with those in Telugu. You will find many of the Punjabi proverbs have not been chronicled in other books on this subject, and are refreshingly new even for those who have lived in Punjab or have worked on this topic. For this matter I feel indebted to my husband who happens to be originally from Punjab, the West Punjab which now forms a part of Pakistan.
I feel elated when I say that I learnt Telugu as my mother tongue and Punjabi as my husband's and feel, far more honoured to have been able to compose this comparative study of proverbs alongwith their cultural background.
I express my gratitude to the authorities of Punjabi University, Patiala and to Prof. S.S. Noor, Delhi University, for their part in editing and publication of this book, and also to the U.G.C., under whose grant this research was accomplished.
When proverbs of a particular language (or languages as in this case) are collected, collated compared and studied that treasure-house radiates literary richness of the intensity like a glowing lighthouse against dark skics of an occan. Proverbs are gems of a language like diamond set in ornaments. When spoken on appropriate occasion they leave you dazzled with the wisdom they carry.
One cannot trace the origin of proverbs. They look as much ancient as the human race or as old enough as when human beings first learnt how to speak and communicate with fellow beings. A proverb is a terse didactic statement that is current in tradition or culture and the wisdom of the whole society is contained in it through the wit of one who coined it.
Through this small book effort has been made to study three such languages which are basically different from each other but are spoken in more than half of this vast country. More effort has been made in analysing the proverbs than merely collating them because that kind of work has already been done by many authors. Effort has also been made to throw light on the variations which take place in proverbs in different regions.
Proverbs have been studied and analy sed by me within groups which use them with special emphasis on the bias people of one sub culture have for the other and how that sentiment is pronounced and personified in proverbs. The change a proverb undergoes, when it travels from one area to another has been focussed and projected for analysis. Provinces serve as a sort of sub-regional boundary, though situated in the same sovereign country. The different points of view, different approaches to a recurrent problem the bias agriculturist has for the non-agriculturist, the bias agriculturist has for the money-lender and the money-lender for the farmer, the bias both have for the menial, rich for the poor and the poor for God and the have-nots for all-has been put forth through various chapters. Our country has diverse religions, languages, customs, cultures and sub-cultures. Yet, there is one unifying force called the "Indian Culture". In this study effort has been made to trace and reveal that unity, which is inherent in this seeming diversity, the unity which reveals itself like a sweet, enchanting mild fragrance in the flowery expanse called India.
Proverbs are hypothetical truths born out of experience of a society-true in all ages. Sometimes they are observations of nature and some times like a statement of a fact as the Telugu proverb Koti vidyalu kuti korake (All learning is for the sake of living only). Who put them in the choicest words, only God knows. But due to their hidden wisdom they get embedded in our heart though, one might have heard it long back in the childhood. Usually mirth and satire is so finely blended in them that they become accomplishment and embellishment to our day to day conversation. They make our gossip spicy and our advice sharp-edged; they are put forth so candidly that they act like a verdict or a judgement in a court. When any individual formulates an idea or draws a lesson from some bitter experience that results in a sententious remark or an instructive exemplification of a hypothetical truth and that accepted truth is adapted as a proverb in the spoken language, sometimes in an inimitable manner. "Danda peer e vigrayan tigeran da" (Spare the rod and spoil the child) is as much true today as it was a thousand years ago.
Most of the proverbs used by us are metaphors drawn from day-to-day life and couched in a terse statement. Comparatively, a few of them only are absolutely final involving a verdict like "Two and two make four".
New experiences give birth to new proverbs and like any living organism they keep on growing at all times. "No Aish (means enjoyment) without cash" is one more example. Proverbs are usually coined on the pattern of those which already exist, but by and large it is a continuous process. Hence like any folklore material a proverb has many traditional variations with varying emphasis. The parallels to the English proverb "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush" differ in the number of words mentioned, as we see in Gaelic "A bird in hand is worth a dozen of the wing". "A bird in the hand is better than a hundred flying". The speaker may elaborate the proverb by naming particular birds as in the Persian "A sparrow in the hand is better than a hawk in the air" or the German "A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the roof". The names of birds nevertheless serve as notional characters only.
When a proverb employs completely different words of comparison to express the idea we cannot easily discern whether the variation has arisen in the course of oral transmission or whether we have come across two proverbs of entirely different origins.
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