Shloka 7
Virtue and Vice — Chanakya Niti
गुणाः सर्वत्र पूज्यन्ते न महत्योऽपि सम्पदः ।
पूर्णेन्दुः किं तथा वन्द्यो निष्कलङ्को यथा कृशः ॥
guṇāḥ sarvatra pūjyante na mahatyo ’pi sampadaḥ |
pūrṇenduḥ kiṃ tathā vandyo niṣkalaṅko yathā kṛśaḥ ||
Virtues are honored everywhere; even great wealth is not always revered. The full moon is not venerated like the blemishless, though slender, crescent.
FAQs
Within the broader Nītiśāstra milieu, the verse reflects a conventional discourse of early and medieval Sanskrit moral aphorisms that contrasts intrinsic merit (guṇa) with external markers of status such as wealth (sampad). Such formulations are commonly situated in courtly and pedagogical settings where character, reputation, and public esteem are treated as key social currencies alongside material resources.
The verse presents guṇāḥ (virtues/qualities) as a category that attracts honor across contexts, while sampadaḥ (wealth/prosperity), even when large, is depicted as not guaranteeing comparable reverence. The contrast functions as a descriptive hierarchy of social valuation rather than a procedural rule.
The comparison employs lunar imagery—pūrṇendu (full moon) versus niṣkalaṅka (spotless) kṛśa (thin) moon—to foreground the prestige of purity or blemishlessness over mere magnitude. Philologically, niṣkalaṅka emphasizes absence of defect (kalaṅka), and the rhetorical question (kim…tathā) heightens the contrast by implying that fullness alone does not confer veneration in the same way as perceived faultlessness.