Shloka 18
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
प्रत्युत्थानं च युद्धं च संविभागं च बन्धुषु ।
स्वयमाक्रम्य भुक्तं च शिक्षेच्चत्वारि कुक्कुटात् ॥
pratyutthānaṃ ca yuddhaṃ ca saṃvibhāgaṃ ca bandhuṣu |
svayamākramya bhuktaṃ ca śikṣec catvāri kukkuṭāt ||
From the rooster one should learn four things: rising promptly, fighting when needed, sharing portions among one’s kin, and eating what one has gained by one’s own initiative.
FAQs
In the broader Nītiśāstra milieu, such verses commonly use familiar animals as mnemonic exemplars for conduct valued in household and courtly settings. The themes—readiness, controlled aggression, kin-based resource sharing, and self-acquired sustenance—reflect social expectations within lineages and competitive political environments of early and medieval South Asian polities as preserved in didactic Sanskrit literature.
The phrasing svayamākramya bhuktam frames consumption/enjoyment as connected to one’s own undertaking (ākramya) rather than passive receipt. In archival terms, the verse encodes a preference for resources gained through personal effort or assertive action, presented as an observable pattern in the rooster’s behavior.
The construction śikṣec catvāri kukkuṭāt (“one may learn four [things] from a rooster”) signals a didactic catalog. Terms like pratyutthāna and saṃvibhāga are polyvalent: the former can denote both literal rising and social ‘rising to action,’ while the latter evokes formal apportionment within kin networks, a key concept in household economy and lineage solidarity. The rooster functions as a culturally legible metaphor for vigilance, territorial contest, and assertive acquisition.