Shloka 18
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
गृहीत्वा दक्षिणां विप्रास्त्यजन्ति यजमानकम् ।
प्राप्तविद्या गुरुं शिष्या दग्धारण्यं मृगास्तथा ॥
gṛhītvā dakṣiṇāṃ viprās tyajanti yajamānakam |
prāptavidyā guruṃ śiṣyā dagdhāraṇyaṃ mṛgās tathā ||
After receiving the sacrificial fee (dakṣiṇā), Brahmins abandon the patron; after gaining learning, students abandon the teacher—like deer leaving a forest that has been burned.
FAQs
The verse reflects a milieu in which patronage (especially in ritual contexts) and pedagogical relationships were structured by reciprocity. It preserves a critical observation found in gnomic (subhāṣita/nīti) traditions: transactional ties—fees for ritual service and the acquisition of learning—could lead to perceived ingratitude or social desertion once the benefit was secured.
The verse presents two paired relationships: (1) vipra–yajamāna, framed through dakṣiṇā (a customary ritual remuneration), and (2) śiṣya–guru, framed through vidyā (learning). In both cases, the relationship is characterized as dissolving after the transfer of value (fee or knowledge), indicating an analytic focus on reciprocity and loyalty rather than ritual or pedagogical ideals.
The simile “like deer [leaving] a burned forest” (dagdhāraṇyaṃ mṛgāḥ) uses ecological displacement as a metaphor for social departure after resource depletion. The compact parallelism—two human examples followed by a natural-world comparison—matches common Sanskrit nīti style, reinforcing the claim through an observable analogy.