Verse 7.197

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

उपजप्यानुपजपेद् बुध्येतैव च तत्कृतम् ।
युक्ते च दैवे युध्येत जयप्रेप्सुरपेतभीः ॥ १९७ ॥

upajapyānupajaped budhyetaiva ca tatkṛtam |
yukte ca daive yudhyeta jayaprepsurapetabhīḥ || 197 ||

He shall alienate all who are alienable, keep himself informed of the enemy’s doings, and when fate is propitious, he shall fight, devoid of fear and determined to co nquer.—(197).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Those who are alienable’—i.e. such members of his family as are angry with the enemy, and desirous of obtaining bis Kingdom;—all such ‘he shall alienate’; i.e. instruct them as to what they should do. The act of ‘alienating’ consists in estranging the dependent from his chief and inciting him to seek his own advantage at the cost of the latter.

Through his spies he shall also keep himself informed of the ‘enomy’s doings’,—to find out all that the beleagured enemy does in the way inciting his own soldiers and foresters in his rear, and forming alliances with the intermedearies and neutrals.

‘When fate is propitious’,—when it is favourable to the besieging king; i.e., when the stars and planets bear a favourable aspect, when dreams and other omens are found to be auspicious, and when there are other signs visible, in the form of favourable winds and so forth,—then being ‘determined to conquer’ and ‘devoid of fear,’ he shall march forward as before and attack various points in the enemy’s stronghold.—(197)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

The second half of this verse is quoted in Smṛtitattva (p. 742);—the entire verse in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 402);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 404), which explains ‘upajapet’ as ‘should create dissension, alienate.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Arthaśāstra (Part II, p. 248).—‘The king shall employ the six methods of conquest, in accordance with his own capacity; with those equal, or superior, to himself, he shall make alliance; against those inferior, he shall wage war... If the superior king does not agree to an alliance, he should have recourse to such methods as making presents to him, creating dissension and discontent among the vassals and subjects of that king and so forth.’