Vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam: the world is one family
अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम् ।
उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम् ॥
ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghucetasām |
udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam ||
Translation
"This one is our own, that one is a stranger": such reckoning belongs to the small-minded. For those of noble conduct, the whole earth is one family.
Meaning
Vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam is one of the best-known Sanskrit phrases today; India used it as the theme of its G20 presidency in 2023 ("One Earth, One Family, One Future").
Its setting in the Hitopadeśa is ironic. In the first book a jackal wants to befriend a deer so that he can eat it later, and the crow, the deer's friend, objects that one should not trust someone whose family and character are unknown. The jackal answers with this noble-sounding verse. The story then shows the danger of trusting fine words.
The same verse is also in the Pañcatantra (5.37 in the GRETIL text), and a version of it appears in the Mahā Upaniṣad. The grammar is simple: two genitive plurals contrast two kinds of people, laghucetasām and udāracaritānām.
Word by word · 12 words
| Devanagari | IAST | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| अयम् | ayam | this one (nom. sg. m.) |
| निजः | nijaḥ | one's own (nom. sg. m.) |
| परः | paraḥ | another, a stranger (nom. sg. m.) |
| वा | vā | or |
| इति | iti | thus (marks the quoted thought) |
| गणना | gaṇanā | reckoning, counting (nom. sg. f.) |
| लघुचेतसाम् | laghucetasām | of the small-minded (gen. pl.; laghu "light, small" + cetas "mind") |
| उदारचरितानाम् | udāracaritānām | of those whose conduct is noble (gen. pl.) |
| तु | tu | but |
| वसुधा | vasudhā | the earth (nom. sg. f.) |
| एव | eva | itself, indeed |
| कुटुम्बकम् | kuṭumbakam | a family, household (nom. sg. n.; -ka adds affection: "one little family") |
Pronunciation
ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghucetasām |
udāracaritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam ||
- vasudhaiva = vasudhā + eva: the two vowels merge into ai, va-su-dhai-va.
- kuṭumbakam: retroflex ṭ, tongue tip curled back.
- A final visarga ḥ is a soft "h" breath that echoes the vowel before it: namaḥ sounds like "nama-ha" (lightly).
- ṃ (anusvāra) is a nasal: it sounds like m before p/b/m, n before t/d, ṅ before k/g, and a nasalised vowel before s/ś/h.