Shloka 12
Governance and Policy — Chanakya Niti
अग्निरापः स्त्रियो मूर्खाः सर्पा राजकुलानि च ।
नित्यं यत्नेन सेव्यानि सद्यः प्राणहराणि षट् ॥
agnir āpaḥ striyo mūrkhāḥ sarpā rājakulāni ca |
nityaṃ yatnena sevyāni sadyaḥ prāṇaharāṇi ṣaṭ ||
Fire, water, women, fools, snakes, and royal households—these six must always be approached with care, for they can swiftly take life.
FAQs
In the Chanakya-nīti tradition, verses often function as gnomic statements reflecting courtly and household concerns in premodern South Asia. This line groups natural dangers (fire, water, snakes) with social and political hazards (royal households, fools, and women as conceptualized in the text), illustrating a historical risk-oriented idiom used in didactic literature associated with governance, patronage, and everyday prudence.
Danger is framed through the phrase “sadyaḥ prāṇaharāṇi” (“swiftly life-taking”), emphasizing immediacy and lethality. The verse treats danger as arising both from physical elements (agni, āpaḥ, sarpāḥ) and from unpredictable social-power contexts (rājakulāni) and human behavior categories (mūrkhāḥ; and “striyaḥ” as a conventional category in the source’s social imagination).
The construction “nityaṃ yatnena sevyāni” uses “sevya” (to be attended/approached) in a broad sense that can include service, association, or dealing-with—suggesting regulated engagement rather than simple avoidance. The list-form catalog (ṣaṭ) is a common mnemonic device in Sanskrit subhāṣita and nīti literature, and the coupling of elemental and institutional terms (“agni/āpaḥ” with “rājakulāni”) reflects a metaphorical equivalence between natural volatility and the volatility of courtly power.