There is a quiet crisis in modern civic life. Across the world, the question of what we owe each other — regardless of profession, background, or social position — has become harder to answer. We celebrate individual rights, personal freedom, and the pursuit of private success. But the older question, the one that kept societies functioning for millennia, is less fashionable: what are our shared obligations? What do we all have to do, not for ourselves, but for the world we live in?
An unlikely answer comes from a Saṃskṛta political treatise written centuries ago.
The Nītisāra, composed by Kāmandaka, is one of classical India's most important texts on statecraft and social order. Less known than the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya to which it owes a debt, it is nonetheless a sophisticated and practical guide to how a well-ordered society should function. And tucked within its discussion of social organization is a verse that deserves far more attention than it gets:
इज्याध्ययनदानानि यथाशास्त्रं सनातनः । ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां सामान्यो धर्म उच्यते ॥
ijyādhyayanadānāni yathāśāstraṃ sanātanaḥ | brāhmaṇakṣatriyaviśāṃ sāmānyo dharma ucyate ||
In plain terms: performing sacrifices (ijyā),...
