Shloka 17
Practical Maxims — Chanakya Niti
बन्धनानि खलु सन्ति बहूनि प्रेमरज्जुकृतबन्धनमन्यत् ।
दारुभेदनिपुणोऽपि षडंघ्रि- र्निष्क्रियो भवति पंकजकोशेः ॥
bandhanāni khalu santi bahūni premarajjukṛtabandhanam anyat |
dārubhedanipuṇo 'pi ṣaḍaṅghrir niṣkriyo bhavati paṅkajakośeḥ ||
Bonds are indeed many; yet the bond made by the rope of affection is of another kind. Even a six-footed creature skilled at boring wood becomes helpless when shut within the sheath of a lotus bud.
FAQs
Within the broader nīti (didactic) tradition associated with Cāṇakya/Nītiśāstra collections, the verse functions as an aphoristic reflection on constraints that arise in social life. In premodern South Asian courtly and pedagogical settings, such verses circulated as compact illustrations of human motivations and dependencies, including those formed by personal attachment rather than by force.
Bondage is framed as plural and heterogeneous (bandhanāni… bahūni), with a particular emphasis on a non-material form: the 'rope' (rajju) of affection (prema). The formulation treats emotional attachment as a distinct category of constraint, contrasted implicitly with more overt or physical restraints.
The metaphor employs ṣaḍaṅghri ('six-footed') as a conventional Sanskrit descriptor for an insect, commonly read in such contexts as a bee. The image of a creature capable of dārubhedana (piercing wood) becoming niṣkriya (inactive) inside a paṅkaja-kośa (lotus bud/sheath) intensifies the contrast between capability and immobilization, using natural imagery to encode an observation about how attachment can neutralize agency.