elp, and accept gifts from persons who are known.
Similarly, a Kshatriya should protect the people in accordance with the
injunctions of the law, diligently practise the virtue of charity, offer
sacrifices, study the whole Veda, take a wife, and lead a virtuous
householder's life. If he be possessed of a virtuous soul, and if he
practise the holy virtues, he may easily attain the region of the
Supreme Being. A Vaisya should study and diligently earn and accumulate
wealth by means of commerce, agriculture, and the tending of cattle. He
should so act as to please the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas, be virtuous,
do good works, and be a householder. The following are the duties
declared for a Sudra from the olden times. He should serve the Brahmanas
and submit to them; should not study; sacrifices are forbidden to him; he
should be diligent and be constantly enterprising in doing all that is
for his good. The king protects all these with (proper) care, and sets
all the castes to perform their respective duties. He should not be given
to sensual enjoyments. He should be impartial, and treat all his subjects
on an equal footing. The King should never obey the dictates of such
desires as are opposed to righteousness. If there be any body who is more
praise-worthy than he, who is well-known and gifted with all the virtues,
the king should instruct his subjects to see him. A bad (king), however,
would not understand this. Growing strong, and inhuman and becoming a
mark for destiny's wrath, he would cast covetous eye on the riches of
others. Then comes war, for which purpose came into being weapons, and
armour, and bows. Indra invented these contrivances, for putting the
plunderers to death. He also contrived armours, and weapons, and bows.
Religious merit is acquired by putting the robbers to death. Many awful
evils have manifested themselves on account of the Kurus having been
unrighteous, and unmindful of law and religion. This is not right, O
Sanjaya. Now, king Dhritarashtra with his sons, hath unreasonably seized
what lawfully belonged to Pandu's son. He minds not the immemorial law
observable by kings. All the Kurus are following in the wake. A thief who
steals wealth unseen and one who forcibly seizes the same, in open
day-light, are both to be condemned, O Sanjaya. What is the difference
between them and Dhritarashtra's sons? From avarice he regards that to be
righteous which he intends to do, following the dictates of his wra