Shloka 5
Learning and Knowledge — Chanakya Niti
विप्रयोर्विप्रवह्न्योश्च दम्पत्योः स्वामिभृत्ययोः ।
अन्तरेण न गन्तव्यं हलस्य वृषभस्य च ॥
viprayor vipravahnyoś ca dampatyoḥ svāmibhṛtyayoḥ |
antareṇa na gantavyaṃ halasya vṛṣabhasya ca ||
Do not pass between two Brahmins, between a Brahmin and the sacred fire, between husband and wife, between master and servant, nor between a plough and its ox.
FAQs
In the Nītiśāstra milieu, brief maxims often encode etiquette and risk-avoidance norms tied to hierarchy, ritual practice, and household or labor relations. This verse reflects an older social grammar in which certain pairs (ritual actors, domestic partners, and bonded roles) were treated as having a protected or symbolically charged interpersonal space, and disruption of that space was framed as socially improper or inauspicious.
The topic is framed as 'antareṇa'—the in-between space—treated as a zone not to be crossed in relation to specific dyads: ritual (Brahmin–fire), social-religious status (Brahmin–Brahmin), domestic order (husband–wife), authority relations (master–servant), and agrarian work (plough–ox). The verse presents these as conventional boundaries rather than as argued principles.
The construction 'na gantavyam' is a gerundive expressing a normative-prohibitive register typical of aphoristic Sanskrit. The list juxtaposes ritual and social pairs with an agrarian image (plough and ox), suggesting an analogy between social/ritual order and the practical integrity of a working unit. The compound 'svāmibhṛtyayoḥ' encapsulates a hierarchical dyad, while 'vipravahnyoḥ' invokes the ritual centrality of fire (vahni/agni) in Brahmanical practice.