Shloka 16
Qualities of the Wise — Chanakya Niti
एकेनापि सुपुत्रेण विद्यायुक्तेन साधुना ।
आह्लादितं कुलं सर्वं यथा चन्द्रेण शर्वरी ॥
ekenāpi suputreṇa vidyāyuktena sādhunā |
āhlāditaṃ kulaṃ sarvaṃ yathā candreṇa śarvarī ||
Even one virtuous son, learned and upright, delights the whole lineage—just as the moon gladdens the night.
FAQs
In the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, moral and social capital is frequently framed through household and lineage (kula). This verse reflects an older social imagination in which education (vidyā) and personal virtue (sādhu) are presented as qualities that enhance familial reputation and cohesion, a theme common to didactic Sanskrit compilations transmitted in premodern scholastic and courtly milieus.
Learning appears as vidyāyukta (“joined with learning”), suggesting formal or cultivated knowledge as a socially recognized attribute. Virtue is expressed through sādhunā (“by a good/virtuous person”), a broad evaluative term in Sanskrit that can denote moral reliability, propriety, and commendable conduct; the verse pairs these traits as complementary sources of familial esteem.
The simile yathā candreṇa śarvarī (“as the night [is gladdened] by the moon”) uses a widely intelligible natural image to convey disproportionate impact: one luminous presence transforms a whole setting. Lexically, āhlādita (“delighted, made joyful”) emphasizes affective uplift rather than material gain, and kula (“lineage”) signals a collective social unit rather than an individual beneficiary.