Shloka 12
Discernment and Wisdom — Chanakya Niti
वरं वनं व्याघ्रगजेन्द्रसेवितं
द्रुमालयं पत्रफलाम्बुसेवनम् ।
तृणेषु शय्या शतजीर्णवल्कलं
न बन्धुमध्ये धनहीनजीवनम् ॥
varaṁ vanaṁ vyāghra-gajendra-sevitaṁ
drumālayaṁ patra-phalāmbu-sevanam |
tṛṇeṣu śayyā śata-jīrṇa-valkalaṁ
na bandhu-madhye dhana-hīna-jīvanam ||
Better to dwell in a forest roamed by tigers and lordly elephants, among trees, living on leaves, fruits, and water—grass for a bed and long-worn bark for clothing—than to live among kinsmen in poverty.
FAQs
The verse reflects a didactic topos common in nīti and related Sanskrit traditions, where forest-life imagery (subsisting on leaves, fruits, water, and bark garments) functions as a contrast to socially dependent life within kin networks. In many premodern South Asian settings, kinship could entail obligations, hierarchy, and reputational pressure; the verse registers this social reality by presenting poverty among relatives as especially degrading within that historical moral-psychological framework.
The verse frames 'dhana-hīna-jīvana' (life without wealth) specifically within 'bandhu-madhye' (among kinsmen), implying that material lack becomes socially intensified when observed and judged inside close familial circles. The contrast suggests that hardship in physical nature is rhetorically presented as less burdensome than the social vulnerability and loss of standing associated with impoverishment in a kin setting.
The compound-heavy diction (e.g., vyāghra-gajendra-sevitam; patra-phalāmbu-sevanam) compresses a vivid ascetic tableau into concise descriptors typical of Sanskrit gnomic verse. The mention of dangerous animals heightens the extremity of wilderness life, functioning as a metaphorical intensifier: even such peril is portrayed as preferable to the social humiliation implied by 'dhana-hīna' status among 'bandhu'.