The Three Monkeys of Gandhi (see ModHist0106)

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Among Mahatma Gandhi’s few personal possessions was a small clay figurine of three monkeys. One covered its eyes, one its ears, one its mouth. It became one of the most recognised symbols of his philosophy.

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Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude · Ethics0078

The Three Monkeys of Gandhi

A pocket-sized figurine, a lifetime discipline

Mizaru

covers eyes
“see no evil”

Kikazaru

covers ears
“hear no evil”

Iwazaru

covers mouth
“speak no evil”

17th c. Toshogu Shrine, Nikko

Gift from monk Fujii, 1933

Kept at Sevagram Ashram

A discipline, not decoration

For Gandhi, the figurine was a daily reminder to restrain harmful sight, speech, and hearing — an everyday practice of ahimsa, not just a household ornament.

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Must Know

• Gandhi kept a small china-clay figurine of three monkeys among his personal belongings.
• One monkey, Mizaru, covers its eyes, meaning “see no evil”.
• The second, Kikazaru, covers its ears, meaning “hear no evil”.
• The third, Iwazaru, covers its mouth, meaning “speak no evil”.
• Gandhi used the figurine as a paperweight, and kept it close as a daily reminder.

Good to Know

• The “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” saying is far older than Gandhi.
• It traces to a 17th-century carving on the Toshogu Shrine, in Nikko, Japan.
• In Japanese, the monkeys’ names carry a wordplay: “-zaru” sounds like “saru,” the word for monkey, while also negating each verb.
• The figurine is now preserved at Sevagram Ashram, in Wardha, alongside Gandhi’s other personal effects.
• For Gandhi, the three monkeys were not just decorative. They summed up a discipline of self-restraint he tried to practise daily.
• He linked the symbol to ahimsa, or non-violence: avoiding harm in what one sees, hears, and says, not only in physical action.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In Gandhi’s three-monkey figurine, which monkey covers its ears, representing “hear no evil”?

Mizaru

Kikazaru

Iwazaru

Shizaru

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Great to Know

• The most widely repeated account says Gandhi received the figurine in 1933, as a gift from the Japanese Buddhist monk Nichidatsu Fujii.
• Fujii met Gandhi at his ashram in Wardha that year. He later founded the Nipponzan-Myohoji order, known for building Peace Pagodas.
• No single museum record confirms this exact origin story, though it remains the version most often repeated in India.
• A fourth monkey, Shizaru, sometimes joins the set in later tellings. It usually covers its crossed arms or groin, meaning “do no evil”.
• Some scholars trace the saying’s deeper roots to a Confucian precept: “look not, listen not, speak not” at what is contrary to propriety.
• The three monkeys remain a common shorthand today, though often used more cynically, for willful ignorance of wrongdoing — a meaning quite different from Gandhi’s own reading of self-discipline.