Shloka 3
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
भस्मना शुद्ध्यते कास्यं ताम्रमम्लेन शुद्ध्यति ।
रजसा शुद्ध्यते नारी नदी वेगेन शुद्ध्यति ॥
bhasmanā śuddhyate kāsyaṃ tāmrām amlena śuddhyati |
rajasā śuddhyate nārī nadī vegena śuddhyati ||
Bell-metal is cleansed by ash; copper is cleansed by an acid. A woman is cleansed by menstrual blood; a river is cleansed by the force of its current.
FAQs
In the genre of Nītiśāstra (gnomic and didactic literature), such verses often compile compact analogies drawn from everyday material culture (metals, cleaning agents, rivers) alongside social notions of purity. The formulation reflects pre-modern South Asian knowledge systems in which physical processes and social categories could be presented in parallel as memorable aphorisms.
Purity is framed through a comparative list of agents and objects: ash for bell-metal, an acidic substance for copper, rajas for a woman, and current-force for a river. The verse presents these as conventional associations rather than as a reasoned argument, characteristic of aphoristic cataloguing in the tradition.
The shloka uses parallel syntax (instrumental case: -nā/-ena) to create a rhythmic catalogue of 'means of cleansing.' The key term rajas is polysemous in Sanskrit (dust; passion; menstrual flow), and in this verse it is typically understood in the menstrual sense, indicating how a single lexical item can carry culturally specific meanings in classical gnomic contexts.