Shloka 15
Right Conduct — Chanakya Niti
परकार्यविहन्ता च दाम्भिकः स्वार्थसाधकः ।
छली द्वेषी मृदुः क्रूरो विप्रो मार्जार उच्यते ॥
parakāryavihantā ca dāmbhikaḥ svārthasādhakaḥ |
chalī dveṣī mṛduḥ krūro vipro mārjāra ucyate ||
A vipra who thwarts others’ affairs, is hypocritical and self-serving, deceitful and spiteful, outwardly gentle yet inwardly cruel—he is called a “cat”.
FAQs
In the broader nīti (didactic-ethical) tradition, verses commonly catalogue recognizable social “types” relevant to courtly life, patronage, and trust. This shloka reflects a milieu in which learned or priestly figures (vipra) could be evaluated not only by status but by conduct, and it uses moral characterization as part of a wider discourse on reliability in social and political relations.
The verse frames hypocrisy (dāmbhika) and deceit (chalī) through a cluster of traits: obstructing others’ aims (parakāryavihantā), acting for personal gain (svārthasādhaka), and maintaining a contrast between outward softness (mṛdu) and inner harshness (krūra). The definition is presented as a composite behavioral profile rather than a single abstract term.
The metaphor “mārjāra” (cat) functions as a compact image for concealed predation: an animal that can appear quiet or gentle while remaining opportunistic. The paired adjectives mṛduḥ/krūraḥ create a rhetorical antithesis that highlights dissonance between appearance and intention, a common strategy in Sanskrit gnomic literature to mark duplicity.