Shloka 10
Learning and Knowledge — Chanakya Niti
अनुलोमेन बलिनं प्रतिलोमेन दुर्जनम् ।
आत्मतुल्यबलं शत्रुं विनयेन बलेन वा ॥
anulomena balinaṃ pratilomena durjanam |
ātmatulyabalaṃ śatruṃ vinayena balena vā ||
Approach the powerful by agreement; meet the wicked with counter-measures. An enemy equal to your strength is handled either with deference or with force.
FAQs
This verse reflects the broader nītiśāstra milieu in which social and political life is analyzed through pragmatic typologies (e.g., the strong, the wicked, the enemy). Such aphorisms circulated in classical and medieval Sanskrit instructional literature concerned with courtly conduct, diplomacy, and interpersonal negotiation within hierarchical polities.
The verse distinguishes approaches according to the perceived moral disposition and relative power of the other party: it describes conciliatory alignment (anuloma) toward the powerful, oppositional handling (pratiloma) toward the malicious, and a dual option—vinaya or bala—when facing an enemy of comparable strength.
The paired terms anuloma and pratiloma are technical opposites in Sanskrit usage, conveying movement ‘with’ versus ‘against’ an established direction or norm; here they function as compact strategic categories. The juxtaposition vinaya and bala similarly encodes a spectrum from normative social restraint/deference to coercive capacity, typical of aphoristic nīti formulations.