Shloka 2
Ethics of Action — Chanakya Niti
इक्षुरापः पयो मूलं ताम्बूलं फलमौषधम् ।
भक्षयित्वापि कर्तव्याः स्नानदानादिकाः क्रियाः ॥
ikṣur āpaḥ payo mūlaṃ tāmbūlaṃ phalam auṣadham |
bhakṣayitvāpi kartavyāḥ snānadānādikāḥ kriyāḥ ||
Even after consuming sugarcane, water, milk, roots, betel, fruits, and medicines, customary acts such as bathing, charitable giving, and related observances should still be performed.
FAQs
In premodern South Asian normative literature, everyday conduct (ācāra) often intersected with notions of ritual eligibility. This verse reflects a tradition in which certain consumables are treated as compatible with continuing routine observances—such as bathing and charitable giving—without implying a disruptive change of status for the remainder of the day’s practices.
The verse frames a category of substances—sugarcane, water, milk, roots, betel, fruits, and medicines—after whose consumption actions like snāna (bathing) and dāna (giving) are still described as “kartavyāḥ,” i.e., regarded as performable within the text’s customary framework.
The list functions as a classificatory catalogue rather than a metaphor: it groups items commonly treated in Sanskrit normative discourse as light, permissible, or non-obstructive to certain observances. The compound “snānadānādikāḥ” uses “ādika” to indicate an open-ended set of related acts, suggesting a broader domain of routine rites beyond the two named examples.