Shloka 15
Qualities of the Wise — Chanakya Niti
एकेन शुष्कवृक्षेण दह्यमानेन वह्निना ।
दह्यते तद्वनं सर्वं कुपुत्रेण कुलं यथा ॥
ekena śuṣkavṛkṣeṇa dahyamānena vahninā |
dahyate tad vanaṃ sarvaṃ kuputreṇa kulaṃ yathā ||
One dry tree, once burning, can consume an entire forest; likewise, one bad son can bring ruin upon the whole lineage.
FAQs
In the broader nītiśāstra milieu, such verses function as compact moral-political observations framed through everyday imagery. The social backdrop presumes the importance of kula (lineage/household) as a unit of reputation, inheritance, and social standing in early and medieval South Asian polities, where individual conduct could be represented as affecting collective honor and stability.
The verse presents a model of disproportionate harm: a single localized source of danger (a burning dry tree) is depicted as capable of cascading into total loss (the forest). The analogy maps this to household/lineage vulnerability, wherein one deviant member (kuputra) is characterized as a potential catalyst for wider familial deterioration in status or cohesion.
The metaphor relies on a common Sanskrit didactic strategy: natural-process imagery (vahni consuming vana) to convey social causality. The term kuputra (“bad/degenerate son”) is a value-laden kinship label, and kula carries both “family” and “lineage” senses, allowing the comparison to gesture toward reputation across generations rather than only immediate domestic harm.