Chanakya Niti — Ethics of Action, Shloka 2
इक्षुरापः पयो मूलं ताम्बूलं फलमौषधम् ।
भक्षयित्वापि कर्तव्याः स्नानदानादिकाः क्रियाः ॥
ikṣur āpaḥ payo mūlaṃ tāmbūlaṃ phalam auṣadham |
bhakṣayitvāpi kartavyāḥ snānadānādikāḥ kriyāḥ ||
Walaupun telah memakan tebu, minum air, susu, akar-akar, sirih, buah-buahan dan ubat, amalan adat seperti mandi, bersedekah dan seumpamanya tetap wajar dilakukan.
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.