Shloka 7
Qualities of the Wise — Chanakya Niti
मूर्खस्तु प्रहर्तव्यः प्रत्यक्षो द्विपदः पशुः ।
भिद्यते वाक्य-शल्येन अदृशं कण्टकं यथा ॥
mūrkhas tu prahartavyaḥ pratyakṣo dvipadaḥ paśuḥ |
bhidyate vākya-śalyena adṛśaṃ kaṇṭakaṃ yathā ||
A fool must be checked—an obvious two-footed beast. He is pierced by the barb of words, as an unseen thorn is driven out.
FAQs
In the broader nītiśāstra tradition, such verses are commonly situated within pedagogical literature on practical conduct, where social types (e.g., the ‘fool’) are described through sharp characterization and deterrent rhetoric. The imagery reflects a milieu in which counsel, reprimand, and verbal censure are treated as instruments within household, courtly, or instructional settings.
The verse frames the mūrkha through a dehumanizing simile—‘a visible two-footed animal’—emphasizing perceived lack of discernment. It further associates the fool with susceptibility to verbal injury, presenting speech as a tool that can ‘pierce’ or expose what is problematic.
The compound vākya-śalya (“speech-barb/sentence-dart”) employs a weapon/medical metaphor: śalya can denote a splinter, thorn, or surgical foreign body. The comparison to removing or dislodging an unseen thorn (adṛśa kaṇṭaka) suggests that cutting speech or pointed words are portrayed as a means to bring hidden faults into the open, using vivid bodily imagery typical of gnomic Sanskrit literature.