Shloka 2
Strategy and Survival — Chanakya Niti
परस्परस्य मर्माणि ये भाषन्ते नराधमाः ।
त एव विलयं यान्ति वल्मीकोदरसर्पवत् ॥
parasparasya marmāṇi ye bhāṣante narādhamāḥ |
ta eva vilayaṃ yānti valmīkodara-sarpavat ||
The lowest men, who speak of one another’s vulnerable points, come to ruin themselves—like a snake within the belly of an anthill.
FAQs
Within the broader Nītiśāstra tradition, this verse can be situated in a milieu where reputation, alliance, and courtly stability were treated as fragile social resources. The reference to exposing “marmāṇi” reflects a historical concern with gossip, disclosure of weaknesses, and speech-acts that damage trust networks in household, guild, or court settings.
The verse frames harmful speech as the act of verbalizing another party’s “marmāṇi,” a term that can denote vital points in a martial sense and, by extension, personal vulnerabilities or guarded matters. The formulation treats such disclosure as self-destructive for the speaker, presenting it as a recognized social pattern rather than a situational instruction.
The compound “valmīkodara-” (“inside the anthill”) paired with “sarpavat” (“like a snake”) evokes an image of a creature confined in a hostile or inescapable enclosure, suggesting collapse from within. Lexically, “marman” carries both anatomical and strategic connotations, enabling a layered metaphor: revealing another’s ‘vital points’ functions like provoking conditions that rebound upon the revealer.