A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c10.68

c10.68

† The reference is to Chapter LXXVIII (35-44) of the Sāntiparvan. There Bhīṣma replying to a question of Yudhiṣṭhira declares that the person who becomes a raft on a raftless stream or a means of conveyance where there is no other means, should be honoured, no matter whether he is a Śūdra or a man of any other caste. For, as the speaker pointedly asks, what is the use of a bull incapable of bearing burdens, a cow that gives no milk, a wife who is barren and a king who fails to afford protection ? In picturesque language he declares that a Brāhmaṇa who does not study the Vedas, and a king who fails to protect his subjects, are like a wooden elephant, a leathern deer, a eunuch or a barren field. He who constantly protects the good, concludes Bhīṣma, and restrains the wicked, should alone be made a king ; this whole world is sustained by such a man.