Shloka 9
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
शैले शैले च माणिक्यं मौक्तिकं न गजे गजे ।
साधवो न हि सर्वत्र चन्दनं न वने वने ॥
śaile śaile ca māṇikyaṃ mauktikaṃ na gaje gaje |
sādhavo na hi sarvatra candanaṃ na vane vane ||
Il n’y a pas de rubis sur chaque montagne, ni de perles sur chaque éléphant. De même, les hommes vertueux ne se trouvent pas partout, comme le santal ne pousse pas dans toutes les forêts.
FAQs
In the broader nītiśāstra (didactic/political-ethical) tradition of early and medieval South Asia, such verses commonly use natural and economic imagery—gems, elephants, forests, and valuable woods—to frame observations about rarity and social distribution. The formulation reflects a milieu where rubies, pearls, elephants, and sandalwood functioned as recognizable markers of wealth, prestige, and trade, making them effective comparanda for discussing uncommon human qualities.
The verse does not provide a technical definition of sādhavaḥ; it uses the term as a culturally legible category meaning “good” or “virtuous” persons. The principal claim is about scarcity rather than a moral taxonomy: the text presents virtue as comparatively rare, analogous to scarce natural commodities.
The repeated constructions (śaile śaile, gaje gaje, vane vane) are distributive idioms emphasizing “not in every instance,” a common Sanskrit rhetorical technique. The metaphor aligns human moral qualities with rare high-value materials (māṇikya, mauktika, candana), reinforcing the idea of limited occurrence through concrete, period-salient referents.