Shloka 15
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
सिंहादेकं बकादेकं शिक्षेच्चत्वारि कुक्कुटात् ।
वायसात्पञ्च शिक्षेच्च षट्शुनस्त्रीणि गर्दभात् ॥
siṁhād ekaṁ bakād ekaṁ śikṣec catvāri kukkuṭāt |
vāyasāt pañca śikṣec ca ṣaṭ śunas trīṇi gardabhāt ||
Learn one thing from the lion, one from the crane, four from the rooster; five from the crow, six from the dog, and three from the donkey.
FAQs
This verse reflects a common pedagogical strategy in Sanskrit nīti and subhāṣita traditions, where animal behaviors are used as mnemonic exempla for human conduct. Such catalogues circulated in premodern South Asian ethical and political instruction, often in courtly and scholastic milieus, where concise lists aided memorization and commentary.
In this line the lessons are enumerated only by number (one, one, four, five, six, three) and attributed to specific animals, while the concrete qualities themselves are not specified within the verse. In manuscript and commentary traditions, such a verse typically functions as a heading or index that expects supplementation from adjacent verses, oral explanation, or regional recensions.
The construction uses ablative forms (siṁhāt, bakāt, kukkuṭāt, vāyasāt, śunaḥ, gardabhāt) to mark sources of exempla, a standard Sanskrit idiom for 'learning from' or 'taking as a model.' Metaphorically, the verse compresses a broader ethical discourse into a numeric schema, indicating an archival feature of nīti literature: aphoristic brevity designed for transmission, quotation, and later expansion.