Niti Saara or Niti Sastra is a popular collection of morals written by Baddena, a Telugu poet. Baddena (1220-1280? AD) is the composer of the famous Sumathi Satakam as well as Niti Sastra. Details about his origin are not known. But, he is believed to be a Chola prince named Bhadra Bhupala. He was a Samanta Raju (vassal) under Kakatiya Rudrama Devi (reign: 1262-1296 AD) during the thirteenth century. In the post-Mauryan age, Kamandhaka authored 'Neeti Saara' based on Kautilya's Artha Shastra and serves as an important literary source of Guptan age. It was translated into Malayalam by Sri K Chandrasekharan Nair in September 1951. Popular verses from Niti Sastra 1. I shall expound Nitisara (essence of maxims on proper conduct) compiled from all scriptures, bowing down to Vishnu, the lord of the universe. 2. Listen to the complete essence of dharma (right action) and contemplate on it. "Do not do unto others what one would not like others to do unto oneself". 3. Do not act without examining the situation carefully; one ought to act only after scrutinizing the situation carefully. Otherwise, one will have to grieve like the Brahmani (Brahman woman) who killed the mongoose (1). 4. Man is bound to experience the fruits of his good and bad actions. The karma does not diminish even after billions of days of Brahma (2) unless one experiences fruits of karma. 5. One cannot earn or retain wealth without undergoing suffering. There is suffering in earning wealth as well as in spending it. Is not wealth the home of suffering? 6. Only a learned person can understand the hardship borne by another learned person to earn knowledge just as a barren woman cannot understand the severe pain endured by a pregnant woman. 7. The parents who do not educate a child are his enemies since he is humiliated in an assembly of learned men like a crane among swans. 8. Onion does not lose its smell even if it is planted in a basin of Camphor, tended using musk and watered using the dew from rose petals. 9. A student acquires quarter of knowledge from the teacher, a quarter from self study, a quarter from classmates and the final quarter in course of time. 10. When a girl is getting married, the father of the girl looks for education in the bride groom; the mother for wealth, the kith and