Shloka 2
Family and Relationships — Chanakya Niti
यथा चतुर्भिः कनकं परीक्ष्यते निघर्षणच्छेदनतापताडनैः ।
तथा चतुर्भिः पुरुषः परीक्ष्यते त्यागेन शीलेन गुणेन कर्मणा ॥
yathā caturbhiḥ kanakaṃ parīkṣyate nigharṣaṇacchedanatāpatāḍanaiḥ |
tathā caturbhiḥ puruṣaḥ parīkṣyate tyāgena śīlena guṇena karmaṇā ||
Gold is tested in four ways—rubbing, cutting, heating, and striking; likewise a person is tested in four ways—generosity (renunciation), conduct, qualities, and deeds.
FAQs
The shloka reflects a genre of Sanskrit nīti (didactic/ethical) literature that circulated in courts and pedagogical settings, where social trust and political reliability were discussed through compact analogies. The reference to gold-testing methods evokes premodern South Asian practices of assaying metals, using familiar material culture to frame moral and social evaluation.
The verse frames evaluation as fourfold: tyāga (renunciation or generosity), śīla (habitual conduct/character), guṇa (recognized qualities or virtues), and karma (observable actions). In this formulation, moral worth is presented as inferable through both dispositions (śīla, guṇa) and externally legible behavior (tyāga, karma).
The metaphor hinges on parīkṣā (“examination, testing”), applied first to kanaka (gold) and then to puruṣa (person). The compound nigharṣaṇa-chedana-tāpa-tāḍana enumerates concrete assay operations, lending technical vividness; the parallel structure (yathā... tathā...) creates a formal equivalence between material authenticity and social-moral credibility, a common strategy in Sanskrit subhāṣita-style verse.