Shloka 4
Dharma and Wealth — Chanakya Niti
हस्तौ दानविवर्जितौ श्रुतिपुटौ सारस्वतद्रोहिणौ
नेत्रे साधुविलोकनेन रहिते पादौ न तीर्थं गतौ ।
अन्यायार्जितवित्तपूर्णमुदरं गर्वेण तुङ्गं शिरो
रे रे जम्बुक मुञ्च मुञ्च सहसा नीचं सुनिन्द्यं वपुः ॥
hastau dānavivarjitau śrutipuṭau sārasvatadrohiṇau
netre sādhuvilokanena rahite pādau na tīrthaṃ gatau |
anyāyārjitavittapūrṇam udaraṃ garveṇa tuṅgaṃ śiro
re re jambuka muñca muñca sahasā nīcaṃ sunindyaṃ vapuḥ ||
Hands without charity, ears hostile to learning, eyes that do not behold the good, feet that never go on pilgrimage. A belly stuffed with unjust wealth, a head held high in pride—hey jackal, cast off at once this base, contemptible body!
FAQs
In the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, such verses function as didactic moral portraits using bodily imagery (hands, ears, eyes, feet, belly, head) to summarize socially valued practices: generosity, receptivity to learning, association with virtuous persons, pilgrimage as a marker of piety, and restraint regarding wealth and pride. The invective tone aligns with classical South Asian aphoristic literature that employed sharp satire to stigmatize perceived antisocial conduct.
The verse constructs a composite figure through negation: non-giving hands, ears opposed to learning, eyes not oriented toward virtuous exemplars, and feet not engaged in pilgrimage. It adds two further attributes—wealth framed as unjustly acquired and pride framed as elevated—thereby presenting a historically recognizable stereotype of the unethical, socially disapproved individual.
The passage uses parallelism and paired body parts (hastau, śrutipuṭau, netre, pādau) to create a rhythmic catalogue of deficiencies. The compound sārasvatadrohiṇau invokes Sarasvatī as a metonym for learning and refined speech, while the final address to a “jambuka” (jackal) employs an established animal metaphor for opportunism and moral baseness. The repeated imperative form “muñca muñca” functions rhetorically as intensified denunciation within the genre’s conventional invective style.