Shloka 9
Education and Conduct — Chanakya Niti
धनिकः श्रोत्रियो राजा नदी वैद्यस्तु पञ्चमः ।
पञ्च यत्र न विद्यन्ते न तत्र दिवसं वसेत् ॥
dhanikaḥ śrotriyo rājā nadī vaidyastu pañcamaḥ |
pañca yatra na vidyante na tatra divasaṃ vaset ||
A place is fit to live in when five are present: a wealthy patron, a learned scholar, a king (ruler), a river, and a physician. Where these five are absent, do not stay even a day.
FAQs
In the idiom of nīti-śāstra, the verse can be read as a compact statement about the infrastructural and institutional conditions valued in early South Asian political and social thought: patronage/wealth (economic support), śrotriya learning (ritual-literary authority), kingship (order and protection), access to water via a river (settlement ecology and transport), and medical expertise (public health). The list reflects a premodern model of what sustained stable habitation and civic life.
Here śrotriya functions as a social category indicating a person recognized as trained in Vedic recitation and learning (śruti-based education). In nīti literature, such a figure often represents authoritative knowledge, ritual competency, and advisory capacity within a polity, rather than merely general literacy.
The verse uses a numbered enumeration (pañca ... pañcamaḥ) typical of aphoristic Sanskrit didactic literature. The optative verb vased (“would/should dwell”) operates proverbially, presenting a generalized traditional judgment. The pairing of human institutions (patron, scholar, ruler, physician) with a natural resource (river) suggests an integrated conception of settlement viability combining governance, knowledge, economy, health, and ecology.