257. i.e., before the Brahmanas get their fill.
258. The Brahmanas are authorities for guiding other men. When, therefore, a particular Brahmana leaves the kingdom, the people lose in him a friend, teacher, and guide.
259. The king should dissuade in the manner indicated in verse 4. If that does not suffice, and if the person intending to leave refers to the king’s previous neglect, the king should ask forgiveness and, of course, assign to him the means of maintenance.
260. The original is elliptical in construction. The etat of the first line has been supplied in the translation. In rendering the second line, the second half should come first. The Burdwan version, as usual, is erroneous. K.P. Singh’s also is incomplete and inaccurate.
261. The word used is Dasyus, literally, robbers; here, enemies of society and order.
262. Some texts read Yoddhyavyam for Boddhyavyam, and bhunjita for yunjita.
263. i.e., thou shouldst care for such opinion, without being angry with those that censure or blame thee.
264. i.e., they who have to undergo such privations in carrying on their useful occupation should not be taxed heavily.
265. The correct reading is bharanti. Taranti also may give the same meaning. K. P. Singh has erroneously rendered the second line.
266. i.e., goes to heaven.
267. Bhishma says that this discourse is very old. Probably this verse has reference to the writer’s idea of the motives that impelled the Rishis of Brahmavarta when they devised for their Indian colony the kingly form of government.
268. This verse gives the etymology of the word Rajan and Vrishala. He in whom righteousness, shines (rajate) is a Rajan; and he in whom righteousness, called Vrisha, disappear, is a Vrishala. Vide next verse.
269. The address Bharatarshabha is misplaced, seeing that it is Utathya who is speaking and Mandhatri who is listening. The sense of the verse is that it is the king who causes the age, for if he acts righteously, the age that sets in is Krita; if, on the other hand, he acts sinfully, he causes the Kali age to set in; etc. etc.
270. He who protects Weakness wins heaven, while he who persecutes
it goes to bell. Weakness, thus, is a great thing. Its power, so to say, is such that it can lead to heaven and hell everyone with whom it may come into contact.
271. The keeper of a cow has to wait, till it calves, for milk.
272. The sense is, I suppose, that if the king be overtaken by destruction, his officers also do not escape.
273. Rajnah, Nilakantha thinks, is an accusative plural.
274. Some texts read Saranikan, meaning traders that make journeys and voyages.
275. The king is God (incarnate) unto all righteous men, because they may expect everything from him. As regards the second line, the meaning depends upon bharati, which as the commentator explains means, “obtains affluence or prosperity.” For Patukah some texts read Pavakah. The meaning then would be “becomes as a fire,” i.e., destroys his own roots, or, probably, becomes destructive to others.”
276. K.P. Singh, I think, translates this verse erroneously. The Burdwan version is correct. The speaker, in this verse, desires to illustrate the force of righteous conduct. Transcribers’ note: There was no corresponding footnote reference in the text, so I have assigned this footnote to an arbitrary location on the page–JBH.
277. Teshu i.e., unto the ministers already spoken of.
278. The sense of the passage is that the king should not ride vicious elephants and horses, should guard himself against poisonous reptiles and the arts of women, and should take particular care while ascending mountains or entering inaccessible regions such as forests and woody valleys.
279. The sense is that although it is laid down that kings should fight with those only that are of the kingly order, yet when the Kshatriyas do not arm themselves for resisting an invader, or other orders may fight for putting down those that so arm themselves against the kings.
280. The Bengal reading of this verse, which I adopt, is better than the Bombay reading. The Bengal reading is more consistent with what follows in verse 8. If the Bombay reading be adopted, the translation would run thus:–“One should not fight a Kshatriya in battle unless he has put on armour. One should fight with one, after challenging in those words–‘Shoot, for I am shooting at thee.” K.P. Singh’s rendering is substantially correct. The Burdwan version, as usual, is wrong.
281. The distress referred to here is of being unhorsed or deprived of car or of weapons, etc.
282. The original is wry elliptical. I, therefore, expand it after the manner of the commentator. Regarding the last half of the second line, I do not follow Nilakantha in his interpretation.
283. This verse also is exceedingly elliptical in the original.
284. The sense seems to be that in fighting with the aid of deceit the enemy should not be slain outright, such slaughter being sinful. Slaying an enemy, however, in fair fight is meritorious.
285. This verse is not intelligible, nor does it seem to be connected with what goes before.
286. The meaning is that king Pratardana took what is proper to be taken and hence he incurred no sin. King Divodasa, however, by taking what he should not have taken, lost all the merit of his conquests.
287. Nilakantha takes Mahajanam to mean the Vaisya traders that accompany all forces. Following him, the vernacular translators take that word in the same sense. There can belittle doubt, however, that this is erroneous. The word means “vast multitudes.” Why should Yudhishthira, refer to the slaughter of only the Vaisyas in the midst of troops as his reason for supposing Kshatriya practices to be sinful? Apayana mean, “flight.” I prefer to read Avayana meaning ‘march.’
288. The protection of subjects is likened here to the performance of a sacrifice that has the merit of all sacrifices. The final present in that sacrifice is the dispelling of everybody’s fear.
289. i.e., not at the weapon’s edge, but otherwise.
290. Ajya is any liquid substance, generally of course clarified butter, that is poured upon the sacrificial fire.
291. Sphis is the wooden stick with which lines are drawn on the sacrificial platform.
292. The van of the hostile army is the place of his wives, for he goes thither as cheerfully as he does to such a mansion. Agnidhras are those priests that have charge of the celestial fires.
293. To take up a straw and hold it between the lips is an indication of unconditional surrender.