Shloka 4
Self-Discipline — Chanakya Niti
भ्रमन्सम्पूज्यते राजा भ्रमन्सम्पूज्यते द्विजः ।
भ्रमन्सम्पूज्यते योगी स्त्री भ्रमन्ती विनश्यति ॥
bhramansampūjyate rājā bhramansampūjyate dvijaḥ |
bhramansampūjyate yogī strī bhramantī vinaśyati ||
ဘုရင်သည် လှည့်လည်သော်လည်း အလေးပြုခံရ၏၊ ဒွိဇ (ပညာရှိ) သည် လှည့်လည်သော်လည်း အလေးပြုခံရ၏။ ယောဂီသည် လှည့်လည်သော်လည်း အလေးပြုခံရ၏၊ မိန်းမ လှည့်လည်လျှင် ပျက်စီးသည်ဟု ဆို၏။
FAQs
In the broader Nītiśāstra tradition, aphorisms often encode assumed social hierarchies and ideals of public conduct. This verse reflects a premodern normative framework in which public mobility is framed as appropriate and honorific for certain male-coded roles (ruler, learned elite, ascetic), while women’s mobility is portrayed negatively, a stance consistent with many patriarchal legal-ethical discourses preserved in Sanskrit literature.
Mobility (bhraman) is treated as a marker of role-appropriate activity: the king’s touring can be read as political presence and oversight, the dvija’s movement as social-recognized learning or ritual function, and the yogin’s wandering as ascetic practice. The depiction of a wandering woman leading to “ruin” functions as a conventionalized warning within that historical moral economy rather than an empirical claim.
The repeated construction “bhraman-sampūjyate” creates a rhythmic parallelism that foregrounds social contrast. The term dvija is culturally loaded, often indexing varṇa-based status and learning. The final clause shifts from passive honor (“is honored”) to an active outcome (“vinaśyati”), intensifying the contrast and signaling a moralized consequence typical of aphoristic didactic style.