Shloka 12
Dharma and Wealth — Chanakya Niti
अनित्यानि शरीराणि विभवो नैव शाश्वतः ।
नित्यं संनिहितो मृत्युः कर्तव्यो धर्मसङ्ग्रहः ॥
anityāni śarīrāṇi vibhavo naiva śāśvataḥ |
nityaṃ saṃnihito mṛtyuḥ kartavyo dharmasaṅgrahaḥ ||
Bodies are impermanent, and prosperity is not lasting. Death is ever near at hand—therefore one should gather and preserve dharma.
FAQs
Within the nīti-śāstra (didactic political-ethical) milieu, such verses commonly juxtapose the instability of bodily life and material fortune with a durable moral or reputational economy framed as dharma. This reflects a broader South Asian intellectual context in which rulers, officials, and householders were addressed through concise aphorisms that linked governance and personal conduct to transience and mortality.
In this verse, dharma is presented not as a single rule but as a cumulative asset (saṅgraha) contrasted with the non-enduring nature of the body and worldly prosperity. The phrasing suggests dharma as an aggregable form of ethical merit, right order, and socially legible moral standing within the text’s normative horizon.
The verse uses a tripartite contrast: (1) anityatā (impermanence) of bodies, (2) non-eternity of vibhava (a term spanning wealth, power, and splendor), and (3) the constant proximity of mṛtyu (death). The compound dharmasaṅgraha frames moral action as something that can be ‘gathered’ or ‘stored,’ a metaphor common in Sanskrit didactic literature where merit is treated in economic terms (accumulation, loss, preservation).