Shloka 16
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
बलं विद्या च विप्राणां राज्ञां सैन्यं बलं तथा ।
बलं वित्तं च वैश्यानां शूद्राणां पारिचर्यकम् ॥
balaṃ vidyā ca viprāṇāṃ rājñāṃ sainyaṃ balaṃ tathā |
balaṃ vittaṃ ca vaiśyānāṃ śūdrāṇāṃ pāricaryakam ||
The Brahmin’s strength is learning; the king’s strength is the army; the Vaishya’s strength is wealth; the Shudra’s strength is service.
FAQs
The verse reflects a pre-modern South Asian normative social taxonomy often framed through the varṇa categories, pairing each group with a characteristic source of efficacy or social function. In the broader nīti (political-ethical) literature, such formulations operate as compact summaries of expected roles within an idealized polity and economy rather than as empirical descriptions of lived diversity.
The verse uses bala as a flexible notion of effective power or capacity, then specifies different modalities: learning (vidyā) as the power attributed to Brahmins, armed force (sainya) as the power attributed to kings, wealth (vitta) as the power attributed to Vaishyas, and service/attendance (pāricaryaka) as the attributed capacity of Shudras. The structure suggests that 'strength' is contextual and role-dependent within the text’s social model.
The shloka employs parallelism and ellipsis: repeated 'balaṃ ... ca' frames a balanced list, while 'tathā' marks equivalence across categories. The term pāricaryakam, derived from pari-car (to attend upon, to serve), encodes service as an institutionalized function; the verse’s compact nominal style is typical of aphoristic nīti composition, prioritizing mnemonic symmetry over elaboration.