Shloka 5
Practical Maxims — Chanakya Niti
त्यजन्ति मित्राणि धनैर्विहीनं
पुत्राश्च दाराश्च सुहृज्जनाश्च ।
तमर्थवन्तं पुनराश्रयन्ति
अर्थो हि लोके मनुष्यस्य बन्धुः ॥
tyajanti mitrāṇi dhanairvihīnaṃ
putrāśca dārāśca suhṛjjanāśca |
tam arthavantaṃ punar āśrayanti
artho hi loke manuṣyasya bandhuḥ ||
Friends abandon the man who is without wealth; so do sons, wife, and well‑wishers. When he becomes prosperous again, they return to take shelter in him. In this world, wealth is a man’s true “kinsman.”
FAQs
Within the broader niti (didactic) tradition, the verse reflects a pragmatic observation about social attachment and patronage in premodern South Asian society, where household stability and networks of support were closely tied to material resources (artha). It aligns with a wider genre of aphorisms that describe social behavior in terms of economic dependence rather than idealized loyalty.
Here artha functions as the effective basis of social support: it is portrayed not merely as money, but as the enabling condition for retaining dependents and allies. The verse frames artha as a practical ‘bond’ (bandhu) that substitutes for, or outweighs, nominal kinship and friendship when resources are absent.
The key metaphor is the equation of artha with bandhu (“kinsman/relative”), using kinship language to describe economic power as the real guarantor of affiliation. The repeated catalog—friends, sons, wives, well-wishers—creates an escalating social scope, emphasizing that even intimate relations are depicted as contingent upon prosperity.