5.18 Brahmin, cow, elephant, dog Krishna speaks
विद्याविनयसंपन्ने ब्राह्मणे गवि हस्तिनि
शुनि चैव श्वपाके च पण्डिताः समदर्शिनः
vidyā-vinaya-sampanne brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śhuni chaiva śhva-pāke cha paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśhinaḥ
In a learned and humble brahmin, in a cow, an elephant, a dog, and one who eats a dog, the learned see the same.
Explanation
A learned brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and one who eats a dog.
The list is graded deliberately from the most honoured to the most despised in the society this text was written in — and the learned see the same.
It would be a mild claim if it stopped at animals. Ending on the outcast makes it a social statement as much as a metaphysical one, and it is left undefended.
Going further
Word by word
- vidyā
- divine knowledge
- vinaya
- humbleness
- sampanne
- equipped with
- brāhmaṇe
- a Brahmin
- gavi
- a cow
- hastini
- an elephant
- śhuni
- a dog
- cha
- and
- eva
- certainly
- śhva-pāke
- a dog-eater
- cha
- and
- paṇḍitāḥ
- the learned
- sama-darśhinaḥ
- see with equal vision
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In a learned brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and one who eats a dog, the learned see the same.
The list is deliberately graded from the most honoured to the most despised in the society the text was written into — and the point of the sequence is that it makes no difference. Placed against 4.13, which has been used for two millennia to justify hierarchy, this verse is the harder and more radical one, and it is rarely quoted alongside it.