Shloka 7
Power and Prudence — Chanakya Niti
मूर्खश्चिरायुर्जातोऽपि तस्माज्जातमृतो वरः ।
मृतः स चाल्पदुःखाय यावज्जीवं जडो दहेत् ॥
mūrkhaś cirāyur jāto 'pi tasmāj jātamṛto varaḥ |
mṛtaḥ sa cālpaduḥkhāya yāvaj jīvaṁ jaḍo dahet ||
The verse presents a traditional valuation in which a long-lived fool is depicted as less preferable than one who is stillborn; it further suggests that the latter brings only limited grief, whereas a dull person is portrayed as causing ongoing affliction for as long as they live.
FAQs
Within the Chanakya Niti/gnomic (subhāṣita) milieu, such verses function as compact social judgments that prioritize practical intelligence and self-control as civic virtues. The comparison between premature death and enduring folly reflects a broader early Sanskrit didactic tendency to frame ignorance as socially costly over time, a theme also encountered across niti and subhāṣita compilations.
The verse characterizes 'mūrkha/jaḍa' not as a medical category but as a moral-intellectual type: a person depicted as lacking discernment, whose continued presence is framed as producing repeated or ongoing distress. The contrast implies a valuation of discernment (buddhi/viveka) as a stabilizing social asset in the ethical imagination of the tradition.
The verb 'dahet' ("would burn") is a conventional Sanskrit metaphor for causing torment or consuming distress, extending physical imagery (burning) into social-psychological suffering. The paired oppositions—cirāyu (long life) vs. jātamṛta (stillborn), alpaduḥkha (limited grief) vs. yāvaj-jīvam (life-long)—create an aphoristic structure that intensifies the evaluative contrast typical of niti-style rhetoric.