Shloka 13
Right Conduct — Chanakya Niti
लौकिके कर्मणि रतः पशूनां परिपालकः ।
वाणिज्यकृषिकर्मा यः स विप्रो वैश्य उच्यते ॥
laukike karmaṇi rataḥ paśūnāṃ paripālakaḥ |
vāṇijya-kṛṣi-karmā yaḥ sa vipro vaiśya ucyate ||
One devoted to worldly work—tending cattle and earning by trade and agriculture—is here called a “vaiśya”, even if elsewhere regarded as a “vipra”.
FAQs
This verse reflects a premodern South Asian discourse in which social categories (often discussed through varṇa terms such as vipra and vaiśya) are correlated with occupational functions like agriculture, cattle-keeping, and commerce. In niti-style literature, such statements commonly appear as schematic descriptions of social roles rather than as ethnographic reporting of lived complexity.
The verse frames identity through practical activity: engagement in laukika (worldly) work—specifically livestock care, trade, and agriculture—is described as constitutive of being termed “vaiśya,” even when the term “vipra” is also invoked, suggesting overlapping or contested registers of status and function within the textual tradition.
Key terms such as laukika (“worldly/secular”) and ucyate (“is called”) mark the statement as a label within discourse rather than a metaphysical definition. The juxtaposition of vipra and vaiśya foregrounds the tension between learned-status terminology (vipra) and occupation-based categorization (vaiśya), a recurring feature in Sanskrit didactic and gnomic literature.