Shloka 15
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
नदीतीरे च ये वृक्षाः परगेहेषु कामिनी ।
मन्त्रहीनाश्च राजानः शीघ्रं नश्यन्त्यसंशयम् ॥
nadītīre ca ye vṛkṣāḥ parageheṣu kāminī |
mantrahīnāś ca rājānaḥ śīghraṃ naśyanty asaṃśayam ||
Trees on a riverbank, a woman in another household, and kings without counsel—without doubt, they perish quickly.
FAQs
In the nītiśāstra tradition, brief analogies are used to communicate risk and instability in social and political life. The pairing of natural imagery (riverbank trees) with household and courtly settings reflects an early Indian didactic style that links environmental vulnerability, household affiliation, and royal administration to the theme of rapid decline.
Here mantra functions as institutionalized advice and deliberation associated with ministers, advisors, or strategic consultation. The verse frames the absence of such counsel as a structural weakness of kingship, implying that rule without advisory support is historically imagined as prone to swift failure.
The verse employs a triadic parallelism: three subjects (vṛkṣāḥ, kāminī, rājānaḥ) are linked by a shared predicate (naśyanti). The riverbank tree operates as a metaphor for precarious positioning (erosion, flooding), while the term kāminī—broadly “desired woman/beloved”—is used as a culturally coded figure for contested belonging; mantra foregrounds the technical vocabulary of governance and deliberative practice.