Verse 7.99 [Art of Government]

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

अलब्धं चैव लिप्सेत लब्धं रक्षेत् प्रयत्नतः ।
रक्षितं वर्धयेच्चैव वृद्धं पात्रेषु निक्षिपेत् ॥ ९९ ॥

alabdhaṃ caiva lipseta labdhaṃ rakṣet prayatnataḥ |
rakṣitaṃ vardhayeccaiva vṛddhaṃ pātreṣu nikṣipet || 99 ||

He shall strive to obtain what has not been obtained; what he has gained he shall preserve with care; he shall augment what has been preserved and what has been augmented he shall bestow upon suitable recipients—(99)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The Kṣatriya shall not rest contented, in the manner of the Brāhmaṇa; he should on the contrary, make attempts to acquire what he does not possess. What he has acquired he shall ‘preserve’; what has been preserved he shall ‘augment’; i.e., lay by as treasure; then he should bestow gifts upon suitable recipients. He should not spend all that he gets; as it has been said that ‘one’s expenditure should be very much less than his income.’—(100)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 413);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 131).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 7.99-101)

Vaśiṣṭha (16.6).—‘He should protect what has been gained.’

Yājñavalkya (1.316).—‘What he has not obtained, he shall seek to obtain by lawful means; what he has obtained he shall save with care; what he has saved, he shall augment, by rightful means; what has been augmented, he shall make over to proper recipients.’

Arthaśāstra (p. 32)—‘The science of Government tends to the acquiring of what has not been acquired, to the saving of what has been acquired, to the augmentation of what has been saved and to the spending of the augmented in proper places.’

Kāmandaka (1.18).—‘The acquirement of wealth by equitable means, its preservation and augmentation and its bestowal on deserving recipients,—these are the four duties of the king.’

Kāmandaka (11.55)—‘The acquisition of acquired things and protection of those acquired,—these are the two fields over which the ingenuity and prowess of the ambitious king should be exercised.’

Kāmandaka (13.57).—‘Desire for acquiring what remains unacquired, and facilitating the augmentation of what has been acquired and the proper consignment of the thriving object to the care of a deserving person, suppression of wrong, following of the path of rectitude, and the doing of good to one who has done, good—these are the functions of the king.’