Verse 8.303

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

अभयस्य हि यो दाता स पूज्यः सततं नृपः ।
सत्त्रं हि वर्धते तस्य सदैवाभयदक्षिणम् ॥ ३०३ ॥

abhayasya hi yo dātā sa pūjyaḥ satataṃ nṛpaḥ |
sattraṃ hi vardhate tasya sadaivābhayadakṣiṇam || 303 ||

The King who imparts security is ever to be honoured; his sacrificial session constantly prospers, accompanied as it is by the gift of ‘security.’—(303)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Security’—from thieves and such dangers, as also from his own officers, who are prevented from inflicting undue punishments.—He who ‘imparts’ such security ‘is to be honoured, ever’; i.e., even in ordinary conversation, and also when he happens to retire to the forest on having lost his kingdom.

‘Sacrificial session,’—a particular form of sacrificial performance, such as the Gavāmayana and the like—‘prospers’—becomes accomplished in all its details; this is what is meant by the ‘prospering’ of the sacrifice.

What is meant is that the king acquires every day the merit that is obtained by the due performance of the sacrificial session.

‘The gift of security.’—In other sacrificial sessions there is no gift or fee; the act here referred to however is superior to them all, in as much as it is accompanied by a gift, and the gift too is not in the form of cows and horses and the like, but of a totally different form; hence it is only right that it should be regarded as superior to the sacrificial session—(303).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 293), which adds that this act is called ‘Sattra’ on the ground of its having to be done day after day; and ‘abhaya-dakṣinām’ means ‘Sattra at which security is the sacrificial fee’;—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 124).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.302-303)

See Comparative notes for Verse 8.302.