Shloka 8
Liberation and Truth — Chanakya Niti
तक्षकस्य विषं दन्ते मक्षिकायास्तु मस्तके ।
वृश्चिकस्य विषं पुच्छे सर्वाङ्गे दुर्जने विषम् ॥
takṣakasya viṣaṃ dante makṣikāyāstu mastake |
vṛścikasya viṣaṃ pucche sarvāṅge durjane viṣam ||
A snake’s poison is in its fangs, a fly/bee’s in its head, a scorpion’s in its tail; but a wicked person’s poison pervades the whole body.
FAQs
In the wider Nītiśāstra (didactic ethics/statecraft) tradition, compact zoological metaphors are used to classify social types and risks within courtly and civic life. This verse reflects a premodern rhetorical habit of mapping moral or social danger onto familiar animals associated with venom, thereby offering a memorable typology of harm within interpersonal and political environments.
The term viṣa (‘poison’) functions both literally (venom located in particular body parts of animals) and metaphorically (a pervasive harmful disposition attributed to the durjana). The verse’s contrast relies on localization versus pervasiveness: animal venom is anatomically situated, while the ‘poison’ of the durjana is portrayed as diffused throughout the person’s being, indicating an all-encompassing capacity to cause harm.
The construction uses parallel genitives (takṣakasya, makṣikāyāḥ, vṛścikasya) with locatives (dante, mastake, pucche) to create a patterned, mnemonic list, culminating in the locative durjane with sarvāṅge (‘in every limb’) to heighten contrast. The metaphor depends on culturally recognizable associations of venomous creatures; the final clause shifts from zoology to moral anthropology, a common move in Sanskrit gnomic literature.