Dighanikaya 26.90

26.90

Samatenāti attano matiyā. Sudanti nipātamattaṃ. Pasāsatīti anusāsati. Idaṃ vuttaṃ hoti – porāṇakaṃ rājavaṃsaṃ rājapaveṇiṃ rājadhammaṃ pahāya attano matimatte ṭhatvā janapadaṃ anusāsatīti. Evamayaṃ maghadevavaṃsassa kaḷārajanako viya daḷhanemivaṃsassa upacchedako antimapuriso hutvā uppanno. Pubbenāparanti pubbakālena sadisā hutvā aparakālaṃ. Janapadā na pabbantīti na vaḍḍhanti. Yathā taṃ pubbakānanti yathā pubbakānaṃ rājūnaṃ pubbe ca pacchā ca sadisāyeva hutvā pabbiṃsu, tathā na pabbanti. Katthaci suññā honti hataviluttā, telamadhuphāṇitādīsu ceva yāgubhattādīsu ca ojāpi parihāyitthāti attho.

‘By his own opinion’ (samatena) means by his own judgement. ‘Indeed’ (sudaṃ) is merely a particle. ‘Governs’ (pasāsati) means administers. This is what is meant: Having abandoned the ancient royal lineage, the royal succession, and the royal Dhamma, he administers the country relying solely on his own opinion. Thus he arose as the final man who terminated the lineage of Daḷhanemi, like Kaḷārajanaka of the lineage of Makhādeva. ‘Later as before’ (pubbenāparaṃ) means the later period being similar to the former period. ‘The countries do not thrive’ (janapadā na pabbanti) means they do not prosper. ‘As [in the time] of the former ones’ (yathā taṃ pubbakānaṃ) means they do not thrive in the way they thrived for the former kings, being similar both earlier and later. In some places they are empty, devastated and looted, and the vitality even of sesame oil, honey, molasses, and so forth, as well as of gruel, cooked rice, and so forth, declined—this is the meaning.