1 I will declare the duties of kings, and show how a king should conduct himself, how he was appointed, and how he can obtain the highest success.

2 A Kshatriya who has received according to the rule the sacrament prescribed by revelation must duly protect this whole world.

3 For, when these creatures, being without a king, through fear dispersed in all directions, God appointed a king for the protection of this whole creation,

4 Endowing him for that purpose with enduring portions of might, of the wind's swiftness, of justice, of the sun's light, of fire's brightness, of watchful sight, of the moon's coolness, and of the keeping of wealth, all of which are God's gifts.

5 Because a king has been endowed with these gifts of God, he therefore surpasses all created beings in lustre;

6 And, like the sun, he burns eyes and hearts; nor can anybody on earth even gaze on him.

7 Through the power given him he is like fire and wind, like sun and moon, like the dispenser of justice, like the keeper of wealth, like the guardian of order, like the mighty.

8 Even an infant king must not be despised, from an idea that he is a mere mortal; for he is a ruler appointed by God in human form.

9 Fire burns one man only, if he carelessly approaches it; the fire of a king's anger consumes the whole family, together with its cattle and its hoard of property.

10 Having fully considered the purpose, his power, and the place and the time, he adapts his conduct in many ways for the complete attainment of justice.

11 He in whose favour resides good fortune, in whose valour dwells victory, in whose anger abides death, is endowed with the strength of many gifts.

12 The man who in his exceeding folly hates him will doubtlessly perish; for the king quickly makes up his mind to destroy such a man.

13 Let no man, therefore, transgress that law which the king decrees with respect to his favourites, nor his orders which inflict pain on those in disfavour.

14 For the king's sake God formerly created Punishment, the protector of all creatures, the embodiment of the law, formed of His glory.

15 Through fear of him all created beings, both the immovable and the movable, allow themselves to be enjoyed and swerve not from their duties.

16 Having fully considered the time and the place of the offence, the strength and the knowledge of the offender, let him justly inflict that punishment on men who act unjustly.

17 Punishment is in reality the king, the manager of affairs, the ruler, and he is called the surety for the four classes' obedience to the law.

18 Punishment alone governs all created beings, punishment alone protects them, punishment watches over them while they sleep; the wise declare punishment to be identical with the law.

19 If punishment is properly inflicted after due consideration, it makes all people happy; but inflicted without consideration, it destroys everything.

20 If the king did not, without tiring, inflict punishment on those worthy to be punished, the stronger would roast the weaker, like fish on a spit;

21 The crow would eat the sacrificial cake and the dog would lick the sacrificial viands, and ownership would not remain with any one, the lower ones would usurp the place of the higher ones.

22 The whole world is kept in order by punishment, for a guiltless man is hard to find; through fear of punishment the whole world yields the enjoyments which it owes.

23 The jinn, the demons, the birds and the serpents even give the enjoyments due from them only if they are tormented by the fear of punishment.

24 All classes would be corrupted by intermixture, all barriers would be broken through, and all men would rage against each other in consequence of mistakes with respect to punishment.

25 But where Punishment with a black hue and red eyes stalks about, destroying sinners, there the subjects are not disturbed, provided that he who inflicts it discerns well.

26 They declare that king to be a just inflicter of punishment who is truthful, who acts after due consideration, who is wise, and who knows the respective value of virtue, pleasure, and wealth.

27 A king who properly inflicts punishment prospers with respect to those three means of happiness; but he who is voluptuous, partial, and deceitful will be destroyed, even through the unjust punishment which he inflicts.

28 Punishment possesses a very bright lustre, and is hard to be administered by men with unimproved minds; it strikes down the king who swerves from his duty, together with his relatives.

29 Next it will afflict his castles, his territories, the whole world together with the movable and immovable creation, likewise the sages and the angels, who on the failure of righteousness ascend to the sky.

30 Punishment cannot be inflicted justly by one who has no assistant, nor by a fool, nor by a covetous man, nor by one whose mind is unimproved, nor by one addicted to sensual pleasures.

31 By him who is pure and faithful to his promise, who acts according to the Institutes of the sacred law, who has good assistants and is wise, punishment can be justly inflicted.

32 Let him act with justice in his own domain, with rigour chastise his enemies, behave without duplicity towards his friends, and be lenient towards scholars.

33 The fame of a king who behaves thus, even though he subsist by gleaning, is spread in the world, like a drop of oil on water.

34 But the fame of a king who acts in a contrary manner and who does not subdue himself, diminishes in extent among men like a drop of clarified butter in water.

35 The king has been appointed to be the protector of the classes and stages of life, who, all according to their rank, discharge their several duties.

36 Whatever must be done by him and by his servants for the protection of his people, that I will fully declare to you in due order.

37 Let the king, after rising early in the morning, honour scholars who are well versed in the threefold sacred science and learned in polity, and follow their advice.

38 Let him daily honour aged scholars who know the scriptures and are pure; for he who always honours aged men is honoured even by the unruly.

39 Let him, though he may already be modest, constantly learn modesty from them; for a king who is modest never perishes.

40 Through a want of modesty many kings have perished, together with their belongings; through modesty even hermits in the forest have gained kingdoms.

41 Through a want of humility Vena perished, likewise king Nahusha, Sudas, the son of Pijavana, Sumukha, and Nemi.

42 But by humility Prithu and Manu gained sovereignty, and the son of Gadhi the rank of a scholar.

43 From those versed in the three sciences let him learn the threefold sacred science, the primeval science of government, the science of dialectics, and the knowledge of the soul and its Lord; from the people the theory of the various trades and professions.

44 Day and night he must strenuously exert himself to conquer his senses; for he alone who has conquered his own senses can keep his subjects in obedience.

45 Let him carefully shun the ten vices springing from love of pleasure, and the eight proceeding from wrath, which all end in misery.

46 For a king who is attached to the vices springing from love of pleasure loses his wealth and his virtue, but he who is given to those arising from anger loses even his life.

47 Hunting, gambling, sleeping by day, censoriousness, excess with women, drunkenness, an inordinate love for dancing, singing, and music, and useless travel are the tenfold set of vices springing from love of pleasure.

48 Tale-bearing, violence, treachery, envy, slandering, unjust seizure of property, reviling, and assault are the eightfold set of vices produced by wrath.

49 That greediness which all wise men declare to be the root even of both these sets, let him carefully conquer; both sets of vices are produced by that.

50 Drinking, dice, women, and hunting, these four which have been enumerated in succession, he must know to be the most pernicious in the set that springs from love of pleasure.

51 Doing bodily injury, reviling, and the seizure of property, these three he must know to be the most pernicious in the set produced by wrath.

52 A self-controlled king should know that in this set of seven, which prevails everywhere, each earlier-named vice is more abominable than those named later.

53 On a comparison between vice and death, vice is declared to be more pernicious; a vicious man sinks to the nethermost Hell, he who dies free from vice ascends to the Garden.

54 Let him appoint seven or eight ministers whose ancestors have been royal servants, who are versed in the sciences, heroes skilled in the use of weapons and descended from noble families and who have been tried.

55 Even an undertaking easy in itself is sometimes hard to be accomplished by a single man; how much harder is it for a king, especially if he has no assistant, to govern a kingdom which yields great revenues.

56 Let him daily consider with them the ordinary business referring to peace and war, the four subjects called sthana, the revenue, the manner of protecting himself and his kingdom, and the sanctification of his gains by pious gifts.

57 Having first ascertained the opinion of each minister separately and then the views of all together, let him do what is most beneficial for him in his affairs.

58 But with the most distinguished among them all, a learned scholar, let the king deliberate on the most important affairs which relate to the six measures of royal policy.

59 Let him, full of confidence, always entrust to that official all business; having taken his final resolution with him, let him afterwards begin to act.

60 He must also appoint other officials, men of integrity, who are wise, firm, well able to collect money, and well tried.

61 As many persons as the due performance of his business requires, so many skilful and clever men, free from sloth, let him appoint.

62 Among them let him employ the brave, the skilful, the high-born, and the honest in offices for the collection of revenue, for example in mines, manufactures, and storehouses, but the timid in the interior of his palace.

63 Let him also appoint an ambassador who is versed in all sciences, who understands hints, expressions of the face and gestures, who is honest, skilful, and of noble family.

64 Such an ambassador is commended to a king who is loyal, honest, skilful, possessing a good memory, who knows the proper place and time for action, who is handsome, fearless, and eloquent.

65 The army depends on the official placed in charge of it, the due control of the subjects on the army, the treasury and the government of the realm on the king, peace and its opposite, war, on the ambassador.

66 For the ambassador alone makes kings' allies and separates allies; the ambassador transacts that business by which kings are disunited or not.

67 With respect to the affairs let the ambassador explore the expression of the countenance, the gestures and actions of the foreign king through the gestures and actions of his confidential advisers, and discover his designs among his servants.

68 Having learnt exactly from his ambassador the designs of the foreign king, let the king take such measures that he does not bring evil on himself.

69 Let him settle in a country which is open and has a dry climate, where grain is abundant, which is chiefly inhabited by Aryans, not subject to epidemic diseases or similar troubles, and pleasant, where the vassals are obedient and his own people easily find their livelihood.

70 Let him build there a town, making for his safety a fortress, protected by a desert, or a fortress built of stone and earth, or one protected by water or trees, or one formed by an encampment of armed men, or a hill-fort.

71 Let him make every effort to secure a hill-fort, for amongst all those fortresses mentioned a hill-fort is distinguished by many superior qualities.

72 The first three of those various kinds of fortresses are inhabited by wild beasts, animals living in holes and aquatic animals, the last three by monkeys and by men.

73 As enemies do not hurt these beings when they are sheltered by their fortresses, even so foes cannot injure a king who has taken refuge in his fort.

74 One bowman, placed on a rampart, is a match in battle for one hundred foes, one hundred for ten thousand; hence it is prescribed in the treatises that a king shall possess a fortress.

75 Let that fort be well supplied with weapons, money, grain and beasts of burden, with scholars, with artisans, with engines, with fodder, and with water.

76 Let him cause to be built for himself, in the centre of it, a spacious palace, well protected, habitable in every season, resplendent with whitewash, supplied with water and trees.

77 Inhabiting that, let him wed a consort of equal rank, who possesses auspicious marks on her body, and is born in a great family, who is charming and possesses beauty and excellent qualities.

78 Let him appoint a domestic counsellor learned in the scriptures and choose officiating priests of devotion; they shall lead his household devotions and the offerings made in God's name.

79 A king shall make various offerings and sacrifices in God's name at which liberal gifts are distributed, and in order to acquire merit, he shall give to scholars enjoyments and wealth.

80 Let him cause the annual revenue in his kingdom to be collected by trusty officials, let him obey the sacred law in his transactions with the people, and behave like a father towards all men.

81 For the various branches of business let him appoint intelligent supervisors; they shall inspect all the acts of those men who transact his business.

82 Let him honour those scholars who have returned from their teacher's house after studying the scriptures; for that money which is given to scholars is declared to be an imperishable treasure for kings.

83 Neither thieves nor foes can take it, nor can it be lost; hence an imperishable store must be deposited by kings with scholars.

84 The gift made through the hand of a righteous scholar, which is neither spilt, nor falls on the ground, nor ever perishes, is far more excellent than any ritual offering.

85 A gift to one who is not a scholar yields the ordinary reward; a gift to one who calls himself a scholar, a double reward; a gift to a well-read scholar, a hundred-thousandfold reward; a gift to one who knows the revelation and its branches, a reward without end.

86 For according to the particular qualities of the recipient and according to the faith of the giver a small or a great reward will be obtained for a gift in the next world.

87 A king who, while he protects his people, is defied by foes, be they equal in strength, or stronger, or weaker, must not shrink from battle, remembering the duty of Kshatriyas.

88 Not to turn back in battle, to protect the people, to honour the scholars, is the best means for a king to secure happiness.

89 Those kings who, defending their people, fight in battle with the utmost exertion and do not turn back, attain the Garden.

90 When he fights with his foes in battle, let him not strike with weapons concealed in wood, nor with such as are barbed, poisoned, or the points of which are blazing with fire.

91 Let him not strike one who in flight has climbed on an eminence, nor a eunuch, nor one who joins the palms of his hands in supplication, nor one who flees with flying hair, nor one who sits down, nor one who says "I am thine";

92 Nor one who sleeps, nor one who has lost his coat of mail, nor one who is naked, nor one who is disarmed, nor one who looks on without taking part in the fight, nor one who is fighting with another foe;

93 Nor one whose weapons are broken, nor one afflicted with sorrow, nor one who has been grievously wounded, nor one who is in fear, nor one who has turned to flight; but in all these cases let him remember the duty of honourable warriors.

96 Chariots and horses, elephants, parasols, money, grain, cattle, women, all sorts of marketable goods and valueless metals belong to him who takes them singly, conquering the possessor.

97 It is ordained that the soldiers shall present a choice portion of the booty to the king; what has not been taken singly must be distributed by the king among all the soldiers.

98 Thus has been declared the blameless, primeval law for warriors; from this law a Kshatriya must not depart, when he strikes his foes in battle.

99 Let him strive to gain what he has not yet gained; what he has gained let him carefully preserve; let him augment what he preserves, and what he has augmented let him bestow on worthy men.

100 Let him know that these are the four means for securing the aims of human existence; let him, without ever tiring, properly employ them.

101 What he has not yet gained, let him seek to gain by his army; what he has gained, let him protect by careful attention; what he has protected, let him augment by various modes of increasing it; and what he has augmented, let him liberally bestow on worthy men.

102 Let him be ever ready to strike, his prowess constantly displayed, and his secrets constantly concealed, and let him constantly explore the weaknesses of his foe.

103 Of him who is always ready to strike, the whole world stands in awe; let him therefore keep all creatures in order, even by the employment of force where it is needed.

104 Let him ever act without guile, and on no account treacherously; carefully guarding himself, let him always fathom the treachery which his foes employ.

105 His enemy must not know his weaknesses, but he must know the weaknesses of his enemy; as the tortoise hides its limbs, even so let him secure the members of his government against treachery, let him protect his own weak points.

106 Let him plan his undertakings, patiently meditating like a heron; like a lion, let him put forth his strength; like a wolf, let him snatch his prey; like a hare, let him double in retreat.

107 When he is thus engaged in securing his realm, let him subdue all the opponents whom he may find, by the four expedients, conciliation and the rest.

108 If they cannot be stopped by the three first expedients, then let him, overcoming them by force alone, gradually bring them to subjection.

109 Among the four expedients, conciliation and the rest, the learned always recommend conciliation and the employment of force for the prosperity of kingdoms.

110 As the weeder plucks up the weeds and preserves the corn, even so let the king protect his kingdom and destroy his opponents.

111 That king who through folly rashly oppresses his kingdom will, together with his relatives, ere long be deprived of his life and of his kingdom.

112 As the lives of living creatures are destroyed by tormenting their bodies, even so the lives of kings are destroyed by their oppressing their kingdoms.

113 In governing his kingdom let him always observe the following rules; for a king who governs his kingdom well easily prospers.