Paṇāma-gāthā — Verse of Homage and Table of Contents
Dhamma Nīti · 2 verses with translation and explanation
1. The Opening Verse of the Treatise
วนฺทิตฺวา รตนํ เสฏฺฐํ นิสฺสาย ปุพฺพเก ครุํ นีติธมฺมํ ปวกฺขามิ สพฺพโลกสุขาวหํ ฯ
Having paid homage to the excellent Gem (the Triple Gem), and relying upon the teachers of former times, I shall now expound the Dhamma Nīti, which brings happiness to all the world.
This is the "prefatory statement" that opens the treatise, following the custom of the ancient sages who would set their minds in reverence toward what is highest before beginning any great work, for the sake of auspiciousness and success.
The author names two things he takes as support before he begins: (1) the excellent Gem — the word ratanaṃ here is singular but collective in sense, referring to all three of the Triple Gem, namely the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha; and (2) the teachers of former times (pubbake garuṃ), the earlier masters who gathered and handed down these maxims of nīti from of old. To "rely upon" them means that the work was not composed out of thin air, but continues from established sources.
The name of the treatise, Dhamma Nīti, comes from dhamma (truth and rightness) + nīti (norm, rule of conduct), and so is rendered together as "nīti-dhamma," or "a rule of conduct grounded in the Dhamma." The author states his aim plainly: sabbalokasukhāvahaṃ — to bring happiness to all the world, without limit of class, sex, or age.
2–3. Mātikā (The Table of Contents of the Dhamma Sections)
อาจริโย จ สิปฺปญฺจ ปญฺญา สุตํ กถา ธนํ เทโส จ นิสฺสโย มิตฺตํ ทุชฺชโน สุชโน พลํ อิตฺถี ปุตฺโต จ ทาโส จ ฆราวาโส กตากโต ญาตพฺโพ จ อลงฺกาโร ราชธมฺโมปเสวโก ทุกาทิมิสฺสโก เจว ปกิณฺณโก ติ มาติกา ฯ
The teacher, craft (skill and learning), wisdom, learning-by-hearing (suta), speech, wealth, country, refuge, friend, the wicked, the good, strength, woman, son, servant, household life, what should and should not be done, what should be known, ornament, the duties of a king, the royal retinue, the miscellaneous section (beginning with pairs), and the odds-and-ends section: this is the table of contents (mātikā) of the treatise.
These first three verses (counting the opening verse) are the portion composed by the compiler-translator himself, not the original maxims, laying out in advance the plan of the whole treatise.
The word mātikā means, by its root, "matrix" (the mother-pattern), but here it means "table of contents," a register of topics. Setting out the topics at the head of the book and then expanding each into its own section is a pattern inherited from the Sanskrit tradition of subhāṣita (well-spoken maxims), which the Pali treatises adopted in turn.
The topics listed here cover a person's life systematically: from the one who gives knowledge (the teacher), the instruments of understanding (craft, wisdom, learning, speech), material and social standing (wealth, country, refuge, friend), the sorting of people (the wicked, the good), all the way to one's roles in family and society (woman, son, servant, household life, the duties of a king, the royal retinue), and closing with the miscellaneous section. The reader thus sees the whole picture before entering into the details.