The word subhashitaya means, plainly, "that which is well said". What the work offers across its length is a body of counsel — precepts set down not as instruction to any one reader but as a general code for conduct within society. The author himself appears to have called the work Niti Sataka; whether the name Subhashithaya came from his hand or was attached to the work afterwards is not settled.
Cumaratunga Munidasa was a Sinhala scholar, grammarian and writer, associated with the Hela Havula movement and its argument for a Sinhala stripped back to its own resources. His name on a title page carries that association, and readers who come to this work usually come to it with his wider standing in Sinhala letters in mind.
The book is published in Colombo by M. D. Gunasena & Co. It should be noted before ordering that the text is in Sinhala throughout — there is no English translation or parallel text, so reading knowledge of Sinhala is needed. For buyers outside Sri Lanka, this is a title for a Sinhala-reading household, a collector of Cumaratunga's writing, or a library building a Sinhala-language section.
- Author: Cumaratunga Munidasa
- Publisher: M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd
- Language: Sinhala
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