Shloka 9
Power and Prudence — Chanakya Niti
किं तया क्रियते धेन्वा या न दोग्ध्री न गर्भिणी ।
कोऽर्थः पुत्रेण जातेन यो न विद्वान् न भक्तिमान् ॥
kiṁ tayā kriyate dhenvā yā na dogdhrī na garbhiṇī |
ko’rthaḥ putreṇa jātena yo na vidvān na bhaktimān ||
What use is a cow that gives no milk and is not pregnant? What use is a son who is neither learned nor devoted?
FAQs
Within the broader Nīti-śāstra tradition, such verses commonly reflect early-medieval and classical South Asian social expectations about household productivity, lineage, and education. The rhetorical style aligns with aphoristic instruction literature that circulated in courtly and pedagogical settings, where utility and social role-fulfillment were frequent evaluative categories.
The verse uses artha (“purpose/value/utility”) as a social measure tied to expected functions: for the cow, milk production or reproduction; for the son, the paired ideals of vidvat (learning) and bhakti (devotion/loyalty). The formulation presents these as conventional markers of worth in a traditional household framework rather than as an abstract moral definition.
The passage employs parallel rhetorical questions (kim…? ko’rthaḥ…?) to create a symmetrical analogy. The terms dogdhrī and garbhiṇī encode agrarian-economic valuation, while vidvān and bhaktimān encode elite educational and relational ideals; the metaphor thus links material productivity with social-ethical productivity in a compact, memorable couplet.