Shloka 11
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
माता शत्रुः पिता वैरी याभ्यां बाला न पाठिताः ।
सभामध्ये न शोभन्ते हंसमध्ये बको यथा ॥
mātā śatruḥ pitā vairī yābhyāṃ bālā na pāṭhitāḥ |
sabhāmadhye na śobhante haṃsamadhye bako yathā ||
A mother is an enemy and a father a foe to the child they do not educate. The unlearned do not shine in an assembly, like a crane among swans.
FAQs
In the broader Nītiśāstra tradition, education is treated as a key form of social and administrative capital, relevant to participation in assemblies (sabhā) associated with courts, councils, and learned gatherings. The verse reflects an environment where literacy, training, and rhetorical competence were markers of status and fitness for public discourse, and it encodes this valuation through a sharp proverbial formulation.
Education is framed as the enabling condition for social visibility and esteem within an assembly. The verse does not define a curriculum explicitly, but it implies that being “pāṭhita” (made to study/educated) functions as a prerequisite for recognition in public or elite forums, aligning with a broader historical linkage between learning, speech, and reputation.
The statement uses deliberate hyperbole—labeling negligent parents as “śatru” and “vairī”—to intensify moral censure within a didactic genre. The simile “crane among swans” draws on a common Sanskrit poetic contrast: the haṃsa is conventionally associated with refinement and discernment, while the baka can connote incongruity or inferior standing; the image functions to depict social mismatch and lack of distinction in learned company.