Shloka 8
Practical Maxims — Chanakya Niti
तद्भोजनं यद्द्विजभुक्तशेषं
तत्सौहृदं यत्क्रियते परस्मिन् ।
सा प्राज्ञता या न करोति पापं
दम्भं विना यः क्रियते स धर्मः ॥
tad bhojanaṃ yad dvija-bhukta-śeṣaṃ
tat sauhṛdaṃ yat kriyate parasmin |
sā prājñatā yā na karoti pāpaṃ
dambhaṃ vinā yaḥ kriyate sa dharmaḥ ||
“Proper food” is what remains after a dvija (the twice‑born) has eaten; “friendship” is what is done for another’s benefit. “Wisdom” is that which commits no wrong; “dharma” is action performed without hypocrisy.
FAQs
The verse reflects a classical South Asian nīti (ethical-political aphoristic) milieu in which social hierarchy and ritual status are treated as meaningful categories. References to “dvija” indicate a Brahmanical social vocabulary, while the paired definitions of friendship, wisdom, and dharma suggest a didactic attempt to stabilize key moral terms used in courtly and household ethics.
In this verse, dharma is framed as conduct (kriyā) carried out “without hypocrisy” (dambhaṃ vinā). The definition is presented as a criterion-based characterization: outwardly performed acts are treated as ethically valid when not driven by display, deceit, or performative self-presentation.
The verse uses a parallel, definitional style (“that is X which…”) to compress normative categories into memorable criteria. Terms such as dvija and dharma carry dense socio-religious semantics in Sanskrit, while dambha functions as a key moral-psychological term contrasting inner intention with outward appearance; the structure links material practice (food), social relation (friendship), moral agency (non-wrongdoing), and ethical order (dharma) into a single rhetorical sequence.