Shloka 7
Discernment and Wisdom — Chanakya Niti
येषां न विद्या न तपो न दानं
ज्ञानं न शीलां न गुणो न धर्मः ।
ते मर्त्यलोके भुवि भारभूता
मनुष्यरूपेण मृगाश्चरन्ति ॥
yeṣāṃ na vidyā na tapo na dānaṃ
jñānaṃ na śīlaṃ na guṇo na dharmaḥ |
te martyaloke bhuvi bhārabhūtā
manuṣyarūpeṇa mṛgāś caranti ||
The verse describes that those in whom there is neither learning (vidyā), nor disciplined practice (tapas), nor generosity (dāna), nor knowledge (jñāna), nor good conduct (śīla), nor virtue/merit (guṇa), nor dharma are portrayed as burdens upon the earth in the human world, moving about like animals while bearing human form.
FAQs
Within the broader nīti (didactic) tradition, such verses function as compact moral-ethical evaluations of persons relevant to household, courtly, and administrative life. The list of valued traits—learning, discipline, giving, knowledge, conduct, virtues, and dharma—reflects a classical South Asian framework used to describe social worth and personal formation in relation to an ordered moral and political world.
The verse frames social worth through the absence or presence of enumerated qualities (vidyā, tapas, dāna, jñāna, śīla, guṇa, dharma). Rather than offering a technical definition, it uses a catalogue of virtues as criteria for evaluating a person’s standing, culminating in the depiction of the person as a 'burden' when these criteria are lacking.
The key rhetorical device is the metaphor manuṣyarūpeṇa mṛgāḥ—'beasts in human form'—a common trope in Sanskrit gnomic literature used to intensify moral critique by contrasting external appearance (rūpa) with inner qualities. The compound bhārabhūtāḥ ('having become a burden') further employs political-social imagery, suggesting unproductive presence within the mortal world (martyaloka) as a weight upon the earth (bhuvi).