Shloka 8
Human Nature — Chanakya Niti
राज्ञि धर्मिणि धर्मिष्ठाः पापे पापाः समे समाः ।
राजानमनुवर्तन्ते यथा राजा तथा प्रजाः ॥
rājñi dharmiṇi dharmiṣṭhāḥ pāpe pāpāḥ same samāḥ |
rājānam anuvartante yathā rājā tathā prajāḥ ||
When the king is righteous, the people incline strongly to righteousness; when the king is sinful, they incline to sin; when he is even-tempered, they become like him. As the king, so the people.
FAQs
Within the nīti-śāstra tradition, this verse reflects a common premodern political assumption: the ruler’s conduct functions as a public model that shapes administrative practice and popular norms. Such statements are frequently situated in monarchical settings where personal kingship is treated as a central mechanism of social order and moral regulation.
The verse frames the relationship as mimetic and responsive: the populace is portrayed as tending to mirror the king’s ethical orientation (dharma vs. pāpa) or temperament (sama, ‘even/impartial’). The claim is presented as an observational maxim about governance and social behavior rather than a procedural rule.
The construction uses balanced antithesis—dharmiṇi/dharmiṣṭhāḥ, pāpe/pāpāḥ, same/samāḥ—creating a compact parallelism that reinforces causal mirroring. The closing line, “yathā rājā tathā prajāḥ,” functions as a proverbial formula in Sanskrit political discourse, encapsulating the idea of normative diffusion from sovereign to society.