Ashoka the Great, Emperor of Magadh, 3rd Century BC
Chapter - 1 of Chanakya's Treatise on Policies for Kings & Ministers
 

Translation:
Bowing my head to God Vishnu, lord of the three worlds, I narrate this collection on Policies for Managing a Kingdom, which is extracted from many books.

Translation:
The human being who understands thoroughly this book is the best. It gives sermon of virtue & duty, what should be done and what should not be done, what is auspicious and what is inauspicious.

Translation:
For benefit of public I will narrate that science, by merely knowing which, a person can consider himself as knowing everything.

Translation:
Even the wise man becomes unhappy by giving sermon to a foolish disciple, by feeding an unfaithful woman, and by being in company of an unhappy person.

Commentary:
[Teach this science only to the deserving persons, who have the ability to understand and appreciate it. Teaching to others will not be of any use just like sheltering a woman of loose character brings infamy and company of unhappy people wastes our time in endless listening to their woes besides depresses our enthusiasm.]

Translation:
Unfaithful wife, treacherous friend, servant who answers back and living in a house with snakes are undoubtedly causes of death.

Translation:
Wealth should be saved & protected for bad times, wife should be protected more than wealth, own self should be always protected more than even wealth and wife.

Commentary:
[Such unenviable choices could arise before a man when army of one king invaded another kingdom and was in the process of looting the inhabitants. The looters could demand money and women. There is a stark realism here. If wealth is lost, it can be regained. If wife is lost, one can remarry and have another wife. However, if one dies then wealth and wife cannot be obtained.]

Translation:
Wealth should be saved for bad times but bad times cannot do any harm to the already wealthy person. Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, is mercurial so collected wealth can also get destroyed.

Commentary:
[A very wealthy man need not save for bad times because bad times can do no significant harm to him. Moreover his wealth could be destroyed because Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, is mercurial. So he should donate some of his wealth.]

Translation:
Do not live in a country where there is no self-respect, no means of earnings, no relatives, and no facility for obtaining education.

Translation:
Do not stay for even one day in a place where these five are not present: wealthy person, person knowing the scriptures, king, river, doctor.

Translation:
Do not live where these five are absent: income, fear, shame, tendency to donate, tendency to sacrifice.

Translation:
We recognize the truth about a servant when sending him for an important task, about relatives during unhappy occasions, about friends during bad times, and wife when wealth is destroyed.

Translation:
The person who is with you when you are sick or are suddenly surrounded by enemy, who accompanies you to the king's door and cremation ground, is a relative.

Translation:
If one abandons the certain & sure and goes after the uncertain & unsure, then the certain which was his is destroyed and he also does not get the uncertain.

Commentary:
[Some people ignore what they can do or achieve as they are under the spell of their desires & dreams. They assume desire & dreams are same as obtaining the result so they lose that which they can achieve. Such people keep bragging & are slack in action. Plan your actions as per your resources so the boat of body will sail thru the sea of life, otherwise it will be sucked in the hurricane of desire & dreams. Act after assessing your capacity as results come from action and not from desires & dreams.]

Translation:
Marriage should be in a family of equal status. Marry a less beautiful girl from a family of equal status rather than a beautiful girl from a family with a lower status.

Translation:
Do not trust animals having nails, rivers, animals with horns, persons with arms, women, and persons belonging to king's family.

Commentary:
[Chanakya actually means that we should not trust them blindly, without keeping an eye on them.]

Translation:
Take ambrosia even if it is in poison, gold even if it is in dirt. Take good knowledge even from lowly person, gem amongst women even from a treacherous family.

Translation:
Women's food is two times as much of men, bashfulness is four times, courage to do wrong deeds is six times, and desire for sex is eight times.

Commentary:
[These qualities are needed in women for their child bearing & rearing roles. Men do not want more sex after first orgasm but women can have continuous orgasms so they are said to have eight times desire.]

Ashoka the Great, Emperor of Magadh, 4th Century BC

References


[1] Chanakya Neeti, Ashwini Parashar, New Delhi, 1998.
[2] Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, R.S. McGregor (Edited), New Delhi, 1999.
[3] Bhargava's Concise Dictionary of the English Language (Anglo-Hindi Edition), R. C. Pathak (Edited), Varanasi, 1995