Shloka 17
Education and Conduct — Chanakya Niti
स्त्रीणां द्विगुण आहारो लज्जा चापि चतुर्गुणा ।
साहसं षड्गुणं चैव कामश्चाष्टगुणः स्मृतः ॥
strīṇāṃ dviguṇa āhāro lajjā cāpi caturguṇā |
sāhasaṃ ṣaḍguṇaṃ caiva kāmaś cāṣṭaguṇaḥ smṛtaḥ ||
The text describes women as having food intake considered ‘twofold’, modesty ‘fourfold’, daring ‘sixfold’, and desire ‘eightfold’, according to the remembered tradition.
FAQs
In the broader nīti (didactic-ethical) tradition, such verses function as compact social generalizations used to advise householders and rulers about perceived patterns of behavior. The use of numerical gradation (twofold, fourfold, etc.) reflects an aphoristic style common in premodern South Asian instructional literature, where memorable ratios are employed to convey stereotyped observations rather than empirical measurement.
The verse does not offer definitions in a technical sense; it assigns comparative intensities to four domains—food intake (āhāra), modesty/shame (lajjā), daring (sāhasa), and desire (kāma)—and attributes them to women in escalating multiples. Historically, this can be read as a rhetorical, gendered typology serving moral instruction and social commentary rather than a descriptive account grounded in systematic observation.
The central device is guṇa-counting (dviguṇa, caturguṇa, ṣaḍguṇa, aṣṭaguṇa), a mnemonic strategy that creates a rhythmic escalation. Terms like lajjā and kāma are culturally loaded: lajjā can denote modesty, shame, or socially regulated decorum, while kāma ranges from desire in general to erotic longing. The final स्मृतः (smṛtaḥ) frames the statement as received tradition (‘it is remembered/said’), marking it as a conventional maxim rather than a personally witnessed claim.