Shloka 13
Virtuous Company — Chanakya Niti
श्लोकेन वा तदर्धेन तदर्धार्धाक्षरेण वा ।
अबन्ध्यं दिवसं कुर्याद्दानाध्ययनकर्मभिः ॥
ślokena vā tadardhena tadardhārdhākṣareṇa vā |
abandhyaṁ divasaṁ kuryād dānādhyayanakarmabhiḥ ||
ရှလောကတစ်ပုဒ်ဖြစ်စေ၊ တစ်ဝက်ဖြစ်စေ၊ ထိုတစ်ဝက်၏တစ်ဝက်အက္ခရာမျှဖြစ်စေ—ဒါန၊ လေ့လာမှု၊ တာဝန်လုပ်ငန်းတို့ဖြင့် ထိုနေ့ကို မပျက်ကွက်သောနေ့ ဖြစ်စေရာ၏။
FAQs
Within the broader Nīti (didactic) tradition, the verse reflects an elite literate milieu in which daily life was evaluated through recurring practices—textual learning (often oral/recitational), gift-giving, and socially recognized duties. Such formulations are commonly associated with Brahmanical pedagogical culture and the ethics of disciplined routine in early and medieval Sanskrit instruction.
The verse frames “fruitfulness” negatively through the term abandhya (“not barren/sterile”), associating a worthwhile day with three categories of activity: dāna (gift-giving), adhyayana (learning/recitation), and karma (recognized work or duty). The emphasis on even minimal recitation suggests a valuation of continuity in learning rather than quantity alone.
The metaphor of “barrenness” (bandhya/abandhya) applies agrarian-reproductive imagery to time, treating a day as capable of yielding ‘produce’ through disciplined acts. The graded sequence—śloka, half-śloka, and a still smaller portion (tadardhārdhākṣara)—uses rhetorical diminution to highlight that even a minimal unit of textual engagement carries symbolic weight in the tradition’s evaluative vocabulary.