Shloka 9
Dharma and Wealth — Chanakya Niti
विप्रास्मिन्नगरे महान्कथय कस्तालद्रुमाणां गणः
को दाता रजको ददाति वसनं प्रातर्गृहीत्वा निशि ।
को दक्षः परवित्तदारहरणे सर्वोऽपि दक्षो जनः
कस्माज्जीवसि हे सखे विषकृमिन्यायेन जीवाम्यहम् ॥
viprāsmin nagare mahān kathaya kastāla-drumāṇāṁ gaṇaḥ
ko dātā rajako dadāti vasanaṁ prātar gṛhītvā niśi |
ko dakṣaḥ para-vitta-dāra-haraṇe sarvo’pi dakṣo janaḥ
kasmāj jīvasi he sakhe viṣa-kṛmi-nyāyena jīvāmy aham ||
In this city, O brāhmaṇa—who is “great”? Only a clump of palmyra trees. Who is a “giver”? The washerman, who takes clothes in the morning and returns them by night. Who is “skilled”? Everyone is skilled at seizing another’s wealth and wife. Tell me, friend, why do you live? I live by the rule of the “poison-worm”: I survive by leaning on poison.
FAQs
Within the nīti-śāstra milieu, the verse reads as a stylized urban critique: it depicts a society in which titles such as “great,” “generous,” and “skilled” are treated as socially constructed labels that can be applied ironically. The references to common occupations (washerman) and public markers (palmyra groves) suggest an observational, city-centered setting used to comment on perceived moral inversion and reputational inflation.
The verse frames these terms through irony: “greatness” is reduced to a large-looking cluster (palmyra trees), “generosity” to the routine return of laundered clothing, and “skill” to socially harmful cleverness in appropriating others’ property and marital partners. In archival terms, the passage documents a rhetorical strategy in which normative virtues are re-labeled to expose perceived corruption of values.
The compound “viṣa-kṛmi” and the term “nyāya” indicate an illustrative maxim or analogy (a conventional ‘rule/example’ in Sanskrit discourse). Here it functions as a compressed metaphor for continued living under adverse or morally compromised conditions, expressed as a proverbial comparison rather than a literal zoological claim.