Verse 9.253

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

रक्षनादार्यवृत्तानां कण्टकानां च शोधनात् ।
नरेन्द्रास्त्रिदिवं यान्ति प्रजापालनतत्पराः ॥ २५३ ॥

rakṣanādāryavṛttānāṃ kaṇṭakānāṃ ca śodhanāt |
narendrāstridivaṃ yānti prajāpālanatatparāḥ || 253 ||

Kings, intent upon protecting the people, go to heaven, by protecting the Well-behaved and by removing the ‘thorns’—(253)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What has been indicated in the foregoing verse is now explained.

‘The well-behaved’—those whose behaviour is right,—i.e., consists in doing what is sanctioned by the Scriptures and avoiding what is forbidden by them. The compound belongs to the ‘madhyamapadalopi’—ellyptical—class. Thus are included all Vedic Scholars and the poor and destitute, who pay no taxes. So that by extending his protection over these men, it is only right that the king should go to heaven. In the case of other people, since the right of protection is purchased by the payment of taxes, the king incurs sin by neglecting it; as is going to be declared in the next verse ‘he falls off from heaven’. By repaying with protection what he receives in the form of taxes, the king is only saved from sin, and he does not obtain heaven.

Or the declaration regarding heaven may be based upon the due fulfilment of his duties, as already mentioned above.

Others have held the following opinion:—The declaration regarding the king going to heaven is purely declamatory. In fact the protecting of those who pay no taxes is also included in the king’s ‘functions’, since those people also form part of his ‘kingdom’, the protecting whereof forms the chief function of the king.

[So that for doing this also there can be no reward in the shape of Heaven]. Just as artisans, who ply their trade for a living, work for the king for one day during the month;—when they are made by the king to do his work,in lieu of his taxes; in the same manner the king also, who carries on his work for a living and engages himself in protecting the people, is made by the Scriptures to protect the well-behaved people, as an obligatory duty. Again the man who has laid the fires, prompted by the declaration of rewards, engages himself in obligatory rites, but not with a view to obtaining Heaven or any such rewards,—for the simple reason that such rites have not been prescribed as bringing about rewards; and yet they are duly performed. Exactly similar would be the case with the King’s action in protecting his whole Kingdom.

Thus all the declarations of rewards that there are, are to be regarded as purely declamatory;—as has been declared by Viṣṇusvāmin (?)—(253)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Cf. 8.307, 386-387.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.253-255)

[See under 8.307, 386-387.]

Hārita (Vivādaratnākara, p. 294).—‘If wicked robbers prosper in the kingdom, that sin, becoming magnified, destroys the very roots of the King.’