Shloka 14
Ethics of Action — Chanakya Niti
क्रोधो वैवस्वतो राजा तृष्णा वैतरणी नदी। विद्या कामदुधा धेनुः संतोषो नन्दनं वनम्॥
krodho vaivasvato rājā tṛṣṇā vaitaraṇī nadī | vidyā kāmadudhā dhenuḥ santoṣo nandanaṃ vanam ||
Anger is King Vaivasvata (Yama); craving is the Vaitaraṇī river. Knowledge is the wish-fulfilling cow; contentment is the Nandana grove.
FAQs
Within the broader Chanakya-nīti/Nītiśāstra tradition, such verses function as compact moral-psychological observations framed through well-known Purāṇic and epic imagery. The references to Yama (Vaivasvata), the Vaitaraṇī, and Nandana presume an audience familiar with classical cosmology and afterlife motifs circulating in premodern Sanskrit intellectual culture.
The verse characterizes internal states through emblematic figures and places: anger is aligned with punitive sovereignty (Yama as ‘king’), craving with a perilous boundary (the Vaitaraṇī as a feared river), knowledge with abundance (a ‘wish-milking’ cow), and contentment with an idealized realm of ease (Nandana as a pleasure-grove). These are presented as interpretive equivalences rather than formal definitions.
The shloka uses nominal equations (X is Y) to compress a moral taxonomy into culturally saturated proper nouns. Terms like vaivasvata and vaitaraṇī operate as shorthand for punishment and ordeal, while kāmadudhā dhenuḥ draws on the pan-Indic trope of the cow as a source of sustenance and value. The pairing of abstract nouns (krodha, tṛṣṇā, vidyā, santoṣa) with mythic referents creates a memorable mnemonic structure typical of didactic Sanskrit verse.