Yato Dharma Tato Jaya


Yato Dharmastato Jaya is a Sanskrit shloka. The motto of Supreme Court of India is Yato Dharma Tato Jaya, which occurs a total of eleven times in the epic Mahabharata, and means "Where there is Dharma, there will be Victory".

Meaning

The phrase comes from यतः कृष्णस्ततो धर्मो यतो धर्मस्ततो जयः on the battlefield of Kurukshetra War when Arjuna is trying to shake the despondency of Yudhisthira. He says that "victory is ensured for the side standing with Dharma, where Krishna is, there is victory". It occurs again when Gandhari, the mother of Kauravas, having lost all her sons in the war, utters it with the intent: "Where there is Lord Krishna there is Dharma, and where there is Dharma there is Victory".

In studies

In Bala Vihar, an educational activity for children, Chinmaya Mission uses this message to supplement the concept of Karma. Scholar Alf Hiltebeitel takes this up in detail in his study of Dharma and Bhagwat Gita. Before Alf, the scholar Sylvain Lévi is known to have studied this phrase in detail with varying interpretations. In an article of the Indian Defence Review journal, it is characterized as "best sums up the Indian thought", here meaning, "If we are righteous, then victory will be ours ". In the study of ethics, it is taken to convey that "ultimate victory is that of righteousness".