Shloka 2
Liberation and Truth — Chanakya Niti
कृते प्रतिकृतिं कुर्याद्धिंसने प्रतिहिंसनम् ।
तत्र दोषो न पतति दुष्टे दुष्टं समाचरेत् ॥
kṛte pratikṛtiṃ kuryād hiṃsane pratihiṃsanam |
tatra doṣo na patati duṣṭe duṣṭaṃ samācaret ||
Repay a good deed with a good deed; answer violence with counter-violence. No fault falls there: toward the wicked, act as the wicked do.
FAQs
Within nīti-style anthologies attributed to Cāṇakya, such verses are commonly situated in discussions of pragmatic governance and social order, where retaliation and deterrence are framed as tools for managing wrongdoing. The formulation reflects a broader premodern political vocabulary in which doṣa (culpability) is discussed in relation to proportional response and the perceived character of the offender.
In this verse, doṣa is presented as something that does not “accrue” (na patati) in the specified scenario—namely, when a retaliatory response is directed toward a duṣṭa. The statement functions as a traditional justification mechanism within the text’s ethical-legal register, linking blameworthiness to the target and context of the act rather than describing a universal rule.
The verse uses paired, formally parallel compounds—pratikṛti (counter-action) and pratihiṃsana (counter-violence)—to create a compact aphoristic symmetry typical of nīti literature. The locative duṣṭe (“in/with regard to the wicked”) is significant: it grammatically anchors the exemption-from-doṣa claim to a particular class of persons, revealing how moral evaluation is textually tied to social typologies (e.g., the category ‘duṣṭa’) rather than to an abstract principle alone.