How did the concept of Subhashitam originate?

How did the concept of Subhashitam originate?

Would it be correct to state that Shubhashitams were used to convey simple truths and learnings in a concise and easy to follow format?

My take on it

Subhashitams existed right from the day Sanskrit literature was born

Praising the good things and giving respect to persons with such good qualities with an implied message that these should be adopted as guidances to follow in life was contained inherently even in the earliest vedic literature. Even Buddhist and Jain scriptures and many secular texts too followed the same methodology.

The subhashitam did not come as stand alone dicta

The description of the activities of men or merit and the positive effects of such conduct and activities were summarised in the subhashitam.

Similarly acts of evil nature or content perpetrated by people and their disastrous after-effects too found their summarization in some subhashitams.

Therefore every subhashitam came with an illustrative story or activity to guide the student and the reader.

Subhashitam extracted from Vedas Ramayanam Mahabharatham Brihat Katha Panchatantram Hitopadesham.. all these have such supporting history.

Great scholars often aggregated such subhashitams into numerous anthologies.

Of course Subhashitam is in reality a narration of a story illustrating a moral rule or a nice social or legal precedent in a catchy and concise manner.

The subhashitams are easy to memorize.

Therefore once the idea is internalized the reader can go after the source legend and draw immense benefit from that.

A great western scholar Prof Ludwik Sternbach dedicated his whole life in the research of Subhashitams and tried to compile a monumental volume Mahasubhashita sangraham.. He made a lot of progress but God took him away from by the time he reached subhashitams startind with छ and he had compiled more than 14600 subhashitams with copious references. But the monumental work stopped abruptly because of his demise.