Shloka 6
Dharma and Wealth — Chanakya Niti
पत्रं नैव यदा करीलविटपे दोषो वसन्तस्य किं
नोलूकोऽप्यवलोकते यदि दिवा सूर्यस्य किं दूषणम् ।
वर्षा नैव पतन्ति चातकमुखे मेघस्य किं दूषणं
यत्पूर्वं विधिना ललाटलिखितं तन्मार्जितुं कः क्षमः ॥
patraṃ naiva yadā karīla-viṭape doṣo vasantasya kiṃ
nolūko 'py avalokate yadi divā sūryasya kiṃ dūṣaṇam |
varṣā naiva patanti cātaka-mukhe meghasya kiṃ dūṣaṇaṃ
yat pūrvaṃ vidhinā lalāṭa-likhitaṃ tan mārjituṃ kaḥ kṣamaḥ ||
If leaves do not grow on the karīla tree, what fault is spring’s? If an owl cannot see by day, what defect is in the sun? If rain does not fall into the cātaka’s beak, what blame is the cloud’s? What destiny once wrote upon the forehead—who can erase it?
FAQs
Within the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, such verses function as didactic aphorisms circulating in courtly and scholastic milieus. The imagery (spring, sun, clouds, and the cātaka bird) reflects a classical Sanskrit poetic and proverbial register, used to comment on perceived limits of human agency and the attribution of blame in social life.
The verse frames fate (vidhi) through the trope of “forehead-writing” (lalāṭa-likhita), a conventional expression in Sanskrit literature indicating outcomes believed to be pre-inscribed. In this formulation, certain results are described as resistant to alteration, emphasizing a worldview in which not all failures are attributable to an external agent or immediate cause.
The verse employs a repeated rhetorical question pattern (“what blame…?”) to separate intrinsic limitation from external causation. The karīla tree evokes a plant associated with sparse foliage, the owl symbolizes impaired daytime vision, and the cātaka bird is a well-known literary motif associated with yearning for rain; together these serve as culturally legible exempla supporting the concluding maxim about lalāṭa-likhita (destiny as inscription).