Mahābhārata

M. N. Dutt: Yudhisthira said How, indeed, should the king protect his subjects without harming anybody? I ask you this, O grandfather, tell me, O foremost of good men!

M. N. Dutt: Bhishma said Regarding it is cited the old conversation between Dyumutsena and king Satyavat.

M. N. Dutt: We have heard that upon a certain number of individuals having been brought out for execution at the command of his father, prince Satyavat gave vent to certain words that had never before been said by any body else.

M. N. Dutt: Sometimes virtue assumes the form of sin, and sin assumes the form of virtue. It can never be possible that destruction of individuals can ever be a virtuous act.

M. N. Dutt: Dyumutsena said If the sparing of those who should be killed, by virtue, if robbers be spared, O Satyavat, then all distinctions (between virtue and vice) would disappear.

M. N. Dutt: 'This is mine,'-'This is not his'-ideas like these will not prevail in the Kali age. (If the wicked be not punished) the affairs of the world will come to an end. If you know how the world may go on, then describe it to ine.

M. N. Dutt: Satyvat said The three other castes should be placed under the control of the Brahmanas. If those three castes be kept within the limits of virtue, then the subsidiary caste (that have sprung from intermixture) will imitate their practises.

M. N. Dutt: Of them those who will violate (these commands) be reported to the king.-This one does not care commands!-upon such a complaint being lodged by a Brahmana, the king should punish the offender.

M. N. Dutt: Without destroying the body of the offender the king should punish him as ordained by the Scriptures. The king should not act otherwise, neglecting to think properly upon the character shall for my of the offence and upon the science of morality.

M. N. Dutt: By killing the wicked, the king kills a large number of innocent men. See, by killing a single robber, his wife, mother, father, and children are all killed. When injured by a wicked person, the king should, therefore, think seriously on the question of punishment.

M. N. Dutt: Sometimes a wicked man is seen to imbibe good conduct from a pious person. It is seen that good children spring from wicked persons.

M. N. Dutt: The wicked, therefore, should not be uprooted. The extermination of the wicked is not quite of a piece with eternal practice. By punishing them gently, by depriving them of all their riches, by chains and imprisonment, by disfiguring them they may be made to expiate their offences. Their relatives should not be punished by the infliction of capital sentences on them. If in the presence of the priest and others, they give themselves up to him from desire of protection, and swear, saying,-0 Brahmana, we shall never again commit any sin,-they would then be discharged without any punishment. This is command of the Creator himself. Even the Brahmana who puts on a deer-skin and the wand and has his head shaved, should be punished.

M. N. Dutt: If great men transgress, their punishment should be proportionate to their greatness. As regards them who offend again and again, they should not be let off without punishment as on their first offence.

M. N. Dutt: Dyumatsena said As long as those limits within which men should be kept are not outstripped, so long are they known by the name of virtue.

M. N. Dutt: If they who transgressed those limits were not punished with death, those barriers would soon be destroyed. Men of more ancient times were capable of being governed easily.

M. N. Dutt: They were very truthful. They were little bent upon quarrelling. They seldom gave way to anger, or, if they did, their anger never became ungovernable. In those days mere disapproval of offence sufficient punishment. After this came the punishment represented by harsh words or censures.

M. N. Dutt: Then came the punishment of fines and forfeitures. In this age, however, the punishment of death is in vogue. Wickedness has increased to such an extent that by killing one others cannot be controlled.

M. N. Dutt: The robber has no connection with men, with the gods, with the Gandharvas, and with the Pitris. What is he to whom? He is not any was body to any one. This is the saying of the Shrutis.

M. N. Dutt: The robber takes away the ornaments of dead bodies from cemeteries, and consumes from men afflicted by spirits. That man is a fool who would enter into any agreement with those miscreants or exact any oath from them.

M. N. Dutt: Satyavat said If you cannot make honest men of those rogues and in saying them by means other than destruction, do you then root them out by celebrating some sacrifice.

M. N. Dutt: Kings practise severe penances for the sake of enabling their subjects to grow prosperous in their callings. When thieves and robbers increase in their territories they become ashamed. They, therefore, perform penances for putting down thefts and robberies and making their subjects live happily.

M. N. Dutt: Subjects can be made honest by, being only terrorized. Good kings never kill the wicked from motives of retribution. Good kings succeed in ruling their subjects properly with the help of good conduct.

M. N. Dutt: If the king act properly, the high class subjects imitate him. The inferior people, again, imitate their immediate superiors. Men are so formed that they imitate those whom they consider as their betters.

M. N. Dutt: That king who, without controlling himself, seeks to govern others (from evil ways) becomes an object of ridicule with all men on account of his being engaged in the enjoyment of all worldly pleasures as a slave of his senses.

M. N. Dutt: That man who, through pride or mistaken judgement, offends against the king in any way, should be governed by every means. It is by this way that he is prevented from committing fresh offences.

M. N. Dutt: The king should first control his own self if he mean to control other offenders. He should punish sufficiently even his friends and near relatives.

M. N. Dutt: In that kingdom where a wicked offender is not sufficiently punished, offences increase and virtue decreases forsooth.

M. N. Dutt: In that kingdom where a wicked offender is not sufficiently punished, offences increase and virtue decreases forsooth. Formerly, a Brahmana, endued with mercy and knowledge, taught me this. And, son, I have thus been instructed by also our grandfathers of olden days, who gave such assurances of harınlessness to people, actuated by pity. Their words were,-In the Krita age, kings should govern their subjects by adopting harmless ways.

M. N. Dutt: In that Treta age kings should act according to ways that follow virtue lessened by a fourth part. In the Dvapara age, they act according to ways conforming with virtue decreased by half, and in the age following, according to ways conforming with virtue decreased by threefourths.

M. N. Dutt: When the Kali age begins, through the wickedness of kings and no account of the nature of the age itself, fifteen parts of even that fourth portion of virtue disappear, a sixteenth portion thereof being all that then remains.

M. N. Dutt: If, O Satyavat, by adopting the way mentioned first, confusion sets in, the king, considering the span of human life, the strength of human beings, and the nature of the time that has come, should give punishments.

M. N. Dutt: Indeed, Manu, the son of the Self create, has, through pity for human beings, indicated the way by means of which men may follow knowledge for the sake of Liberation."