Shloka 2
Dharma and Wealth — Chanakya Niti
आर्तेषु विप्रेषु दयान्वितश्च
यच्छ्रद्धया स्वल्पमुपैति दानम् ।
अनन्तपारमुपैति राजन्
यद्दीयते तन्न लभेद्द्विजेभ्यः ॥
ārteṣu vipreṣu dayānvitaś ca
yac chraddhayā svalpam upaiti dānam |
anantapāram upaiti rājan
yad dīyate tan na labheddvijebhyaḥ ||
O king, even a small gift, given with faith and compassion to afflicted Brahmins, yields immeasurable fruit; what is given is not fully regained from the twice-born.
FAQs
The verse reflects a normative ethical economy attested in Sanskrit nīti and dharma literature, where rulers and elites are depicted as supporting Brahmins and religious specialists through dāna (gifting). Such passages are commonly situated within premodern South Asian social hierarchies in which Brahmins are represented as custodians of ritual learning, and charitable patronage is framed as producing religious merit and social legitimacy.
Here dāna is characterized less by quantity (svalpa, “small”) than by intention and disposition (śraddhā, “faith,” and dayā, “compassion”), and by the recipient category (ārta-vipra, “afflicted Brahmins”). The verse presents a traditional claim that such giving yields boundless return, while also emphasizing the irreversibility of a gift once transferred.
The compound anantapāra (“endless far shore”) uses a spatial metaphor for immeasurability, a common Sanskrit idiom for results beyond calculation. The terms vipra and dvija function as socio-religious markers; dvija (“twice-born”) is a technical designation associated with the upper varṇa groups, especially Brahmins, and signals the verse’s embeddedness in a stratified social vocabulary.