Shloka 3
Ethics of Action — Chanakya Niti
दीपो भक्षयते ध्वान्तं कज्जलं च प्रसूयते ।
यदन्नं भक्षयते नित्यं जायते तादृशी प्रजा ॥
dīpo bhakṣayate dhvāntaṃ kajjalaṃ ca prasūyate |
yad annaṃ bhakṣayate nityaṃ jāyate tādṛśī prajā ||
A lamp consumes darkness, yet it also produces soot. Whatever is continually consumed as “food,” a people of that very kind comes to be.
FAQs
In the Chanakya-nīti tradition, aphoristic verses often use everyday material culture (such as lamps) to frame observations about governance, social order, and collective outcomes. The imagery reflects pre-modern South Asian didactic style, where naturalistic examples are used to comment on how sustained inputs (resources, habits, influences) correlate with the character of a community or polity.
The verse presents social formation as an outcome correlated with continual consumption or sustenance (“anna” in a broad sense). Rather than offering a procedural rule, it frames a descriptive linkage: persistent nourishment or intake is associated with the kind of populace (“tādṛśī prajā”) that emerges.
The metaphor hinges on bhakṣayate (“consumes”) applied to both darkness and food, creating a parallel structure: consumption removes one thing (darkness) yet yields a byproduct (soot). “Anna” can denote literal food and, by extension, sustaining inputs; “prajā” can mean progeny or subjects, allowing the line to be read as a compact statement about how material or moral sustenance shapes collective character over time.