Shloka 21
Liberation and Truth — Chanakya Niti
व्यालाश्रयापि विकलापि सकण्टकापि
वक्रापि पङ्किलभवापि दुरासदापि ।
गन्धेन बन्धुरसि केतकि सर्वजन्ता
रेको गुणः खलु निहन्ति समस्तदोषान् ॥
vyālāśrayāpi vikalāpi sakaṇṭakāpi
vakrāpi paṅkilabhavāpi durāsadāpi |
gandhena bandhur asi ketaki sarvajantā
reko guṇaḥ khalu nihanti samastadoṣān ||
The ketakī flower, though it grows among wild creatures—imperfect, thorny, crooked, born of mire, and hard to approach—wins all hearts by its fragrance. One outstanding virtue can eclipse a host of faults.
FAQs
Within the Chanakya Niti/Nīti-śāstra tradition, such verses commonly employ natural imagery to articulate evaluative concepts used in courtly, social, and administrative discourse. The ketakī serves as a familiar botanical reference in classical Sanskrit culture, allowing a condensed statement about reputation and appraisal—how a notable attribute could be emphasized despite acknowledged defects.
Here guṇa is framed as a salient, socially recognized excellence—symbolized by fragrance (gandha)—that becomes the basis for esteem (bandhuratā). The verse presents guṇa less as moral instruction and more as an observation about how valuation and desirability may operate in traditional discourse.
The verse uses a cumulative concessive structure with repeated 'api' (“even though...”) to stack negatives (defective, thorny, crooked, muddy origin, hard to approach) against a single positive (fragrance). The apostrophe 'ketaki' personifies the flower, and 'nihanti samastadoṣān' functions as rhetorical hyperbole, expressing the idiom that one prominent excellence can eclipse many perceived flaws.