|| Satyameva Jayate ||

Dedicated to Bharat and Dharma

“Sukhasya moolam Dharmah”

by · March 1, 2011

Many of you must have come across this well-known sutra before. Some days back, I got curious to know more about it…and I turned to Radhakrishnan Pillai and Ranjit Shetty, co-Founders and Directors of the Chanakya Institute of Public Leadership in Mumbai.  Radhakrishnan and Ranjit put me in touch with CIPL’s course-coordinator, Malathi..who sent me this very helpful email (thanks also to Rahul and Pravin – both participants at CIPL, who helped Malathi locate the sutras):

The sutras which you have asked the reference for comes in Chanakya Pranita Sutra which is also called Chanakya Sutra. It doesn’t come under Arthashastra. There are works by Chanakya other than Arthashastra like Laghu Chanakya, Rajneeti Shastra, Chanakya Neeti, Chanakya Sutra etc. Chanakya Sutra has 572 sutras. These are the first 10 sutras from Chanakya Sutra:

1. Sukhasya moolam Dharmah

Meaning – The basis of “sukha” or all true pleasantness  is “dharma” or righteous conduct.

2. Dharmasya moolam Arthah

Meaning- The basis of all “dharma” is “artha” or wealth.

3. Arthasya moolam Rajyam

Meaning – The basis of all “artha” is “rajya” or the State.

4.  Rajyasya moolam Indriya Jayah

Meaning – The basis for the stability of the State lies in control over the “indriya“ or sense faculties providing pleasure.

5.  Indriyajayasya moolam Vinayah

Meaning – The basis for control over the sensual faculties is in “vinay” or humility.

6. Vinayasya moolam Vruddhopasevah

Meaning – The basis for humility is devotion to those grown old through wisdom.

7. Vruddhopasevaya Vijnanam

Meaning – Through devotion to the wise, one attains proficiency with the maximum efficiency.

8. Vijnanena atmaanam Sampadyet

Meaning – It is imperative for all the functionaries of the State to perform their duties with the maximum efficiency.

9. Samapaditatma jitatmama Bhavati

Meaning – To perform State duties with the maximum efficiency, the functionaries of the State must learn to control their sensual needs, and maximise their internal potential.

10. Jitatma sarvarthe Sanyujyate

Meaning – Those who have vanquished their baser selves will become prosperous naturally, can retain their prosperity, and (will) be successful in their endeavours.

Here are the sutras in Devanagari script:

सुखस्य मूलं धर्मः , धर्मस्य  मूलं  अर्थः

अर्थस्य  मूलं  राज्यं  , राज्यस्य मूलं  इन्द्रिय  जयः

इन्द्रियाजयस्य  मूलं  विनयः, विनयस्य मूलं  वृद्धोपसेवः

वृद्धोपसेवाय  विग्न्यानं , विग्न्यानेनं आत्मानं  सम्पद्येत

समपदितात्म जितात्मम  भवति, जितात्मा  सर्वार्थे  संयुज्यते

Related Posts: Understanding Raj-Dharma – Part I and Part II

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B Shantanu

Political Activist, Blogger, Advisor to start-ups, Seed investor. One time VC and ex-Diplomat. Failed mushroom farmer; ex Radio Jockey. Currently involved in Reclaiming India - One Step at a Time.

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8 Responses

  1. Sid says:
    March 2, 2011 at 12:37 am

    Shantanu,
    Meaning- The basis of all “dharma” is “artha” or wealth.
    Are you sure that “artha” only means wealth? Looking at the context, the closest English word I can find is “resources” or “means”.

  2. Nanda says:
    March 2, 2011 at 10:43 am

    Though these are useful thoughts, its not going to be used by our leaders anyway. I rather prefer our such hindu works accessible to only faithful hindus and to previleged few instead of coming open in internet. Mainly because, this could easily be copied by anyone in internet and could be distributed as his own thoughts with some changes in the words and sentence. It could even come out as a preaching of almighty father in the next edition of bible for that matter, it could be reworded as an english or a french or a urdu poem by some poets. This is how they stole all our philosophies, plagiarism is easy and unchallenged as far as hindu sources are concerned. Why should an average unfaithful hindu or a non-hindu respect Chanakya’s work, especially when noone can challenge.

  3. twistleton says:
    March 2, 2011 at 3:33 pm

    @Nanda

    You attitude is astounding my friend. Pray what do you mean by unfaithful Hindu?

    @general

    Chanakya comes across as a man of unshakeable pragmatism. The second sutra is particularly profound.

  4. Indian says:
    March 2, 2011 at 10:52 pm

    @Nanda

    I do agree with you! Now a days Pick pocketing is very common!

  5. Sid says:
    March 3, 2011 at 12:07 am

    @Nanda(#2),
    Such pick-pocketing happened before. But your suggestion is not welcome. More these texts come out in the open, more it would be difficult for a privileged class to prove their claim on false ownership. A lot of European mis-translation was caught only when those who are well versed in both Sanskrit and English began to understand these sutras in original.
    Did you hear of a man named Robert De Nobili? This missionary came to India, learned Sanskritam and then wrote a forged Sanskrit work called Ezour-vedam to prove that Catholics are Roman Brahmins (yes, I am well aware that Max Muller tried to exonerate him, but modern scholars questioned the scholarly methods and integrity of the first orientalist scholar). For a long time, it was difficult prove this strange “shastra” false because Hindus with comprehensive knowledge of their Shastra were rare to find.

  6. shivam negi says:
    March 3, 2011 at 11:40 am

    why dont u join bharat swabhiman?
    i heard the sam words frm his speech 4 days ago in mizoram.

  7. vikram says:
    March 21, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    btw

    fyi
    this is oft repeated and quoted arth-shastra sutra by swami ramdev

  8. v.c.krishnan says:
    March 23, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Dear Shantanu,
    When the German Minister was caught with his pants down for a Ph.D article plaigarised by him our preess hailed him as an epitome of sincerity and compared him with our politicians and our celluloid people who get “Dr’s” at the drop of a hat.
    You may be wondereing why I am bringing up this subject under this head of the blog. I am only tryng to make a point that our press, our celluloid people and our politicians wll not give any support to us if these statements our copied and then brought out as “Thoughts from tyhe west” and definetely “NOT BHARATIAN”!
    We should first persist by spreading the word around, or I would say, DRUMMING it into the heads of the Indian youth before we spread it around the world, as then if there is any untruth in it it will be easily exposed.
    It is like the “Christian Yoga”. It will be like how OUR NCERT authors define Bhagat Singh and others as TERRORISTS in the books that our children are educated upon.
    As a student I read in a History book that “Afzal Khan was killed by TREACHERY by Shivaji Maharaj!
    Distortions and Plaigarism are the bane of our Indian thoughts as we are not PROUD OF OUR HERITAGE.
    Due to the efforts of inumerable persons who have highlighted the truth of BHARATISM today we have the Government of India taking steps to atleast protect the intellectual capital of India with respect to its ancient wealth of Unani, Ayurveda and Siddha.
    I read in the news paper today that 350,000 items related to ancient formulations related to these are being codified so that they cannot be copied and REINTRODUCED into India as products not indegenous to INDIA at a later date.
    Let us first get introduced to the greatness of BHARAT before we highlight things which can be copied and lied about.
    Regards,
    vck