Shloka 11
Right Conduct — Chanakya Niti
अकृष्टफलमूलानि वनवासरतिः सदा ।
कुरुतेऽहरहः श्राद्धमृषिर्विप्रः स उच्यते ॥
akṛṣṭa-phala-mūlāni vana-vāsa-ratiḥ sadā |
kurute 'harahaḥ śrāddham ṛṣir vipraḥ sa ucyate ||
He who ever delights in forest-dwelling, lives on uncultivated fruits and roots, and performs śrāddha day after day—he is called a “vipra” and a “ṛṣi”.
FAQs
The verse reflects a premodern South Asian social-ethical ideal in which ascetic residence in the forest (vana-vāsa), reliance on non-agricultural subsistence (uncultivated fruits and roots), and sustained ritual attention to ancestors (śrāddha) are presented as markers of learned and sanctified status (vipra, ṛṣi). Such motifs are common across Sanskrit dharma and nīti literature, where renunciant or semi-renunciant lifestyles are used to index moral authority and ritual legitimacy.
Authority is characterized descriptively through three linked features: (1) non-agrarian subsistence (akṛṣṭa-phala-mūla), (2) continuous preference for forest residence (vana-vāsa-ratiḥ sadā), and (3) repeated performance of śrāddha rites (aharahaḥ śrāddham kurute). The verse thereby associates learned/sage identity with both renunciant ecology and ongoing ritual practice.
The compound akṛṣṭa-phala-mūlāni foregrounds an economy outside cultivation, emphasizing separation from settled agrarian life. The phrase vana-vāsa-ratiḥ frames forest life not as hardship but as a sustained inclination (rati). The repetitive marker aharahaḥ intensifies the ritual dimension by portraying śrāddha as continuous practice, and the closing ucyate (“is called”) signals a definitional or classificatory statement typical of nīti-style characterization.