Shloka 5
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
यस्यार्थास्तस्य मित्राणि यस्यार्थास्तस्य बान्धवाः ।
यस्यार्थाः स पुमाँल्लोके यस्यार्थाः स च पण्डितः ॥
yasyārthās tasya mitrāṇi yasyārthās tasya bāndhavāḥ |
yasyārthāḥ sa pumāṁl loke yasyārthāḥ sa ca paṇḍitaḥ ||
He who has wealth has friends; he who has wealth has kin. He who has wealth is deemed a man of consequence in the world; he who has wealth is deemed learned as well.
FAQs
In the broader nīti (ethical-political aphorism) tradition, wealth (artha) is frequently treated as a key driver of social standing and alliance-formation. This verse reflects a pre-modern social observation in which patronage, resource control, and reputation could shape networks of friendship and kin support within courts, households, and local communities.
Here artha functions primarily as material means—wealth, resources, and the practical capacity to sustain relationships. The phrasing links artha to social recognition, implying that status categories such as “important person” (pumān in a socially weighty sense) and even “learned” (paṇḍita) may be socially attributed in relation to prosperity rather than solely to intrinsic merit.
The verse uses parallelism and repetition (“yasyārthās…”) to emphasize artha as the organizing principle behind multiple forms of recognition (friends, kin, public esteem, and the label paṇḍita). The term pumān is grammatically gendered but operates idiomatically as a marker of social consequence; paṇḍita, typically denoting learnedness, is presented as a socially conferred identity that may be influenced by economic standing.