Shloka 5
Vāmadeva’s Rājadharma: Norm-Setting, Counsel, and the Prevention of Rāṣṭra-Vināśa (वामदेव-प्रोक्तं राजधर्मम्)
दुःसाहसी प्रकृतिवाला जो राजा जहाँ कुछ उहण्डतापूर्ण बर्ताव करता है, वहाँ शास्त्रोक्त मर्यादाका उल्लंघन करनेवाला वह राजा शीघ्र ही नष्ट हो जाता है ।।
yo 'tyantācaritāṁ vṛttiṁ kṣatriyo nānuvartate | jitānām ajitānāṁ ca kṣatradharmād apaiti saḥ ||
Vāmadeva sprach: Wenn ein kṣatriyischer Herrscher die seit langem bestehenden Lebensweisen und überlieferten Sitten der Menschen in seinem Reich—ob bereits unterworfen oder noch nicht—nicht wahrt, dann fällt er von der eigentlichen Dharma des Königtums ab. Ein König, der die vom Śāstra gesetzten Grenzen verletzt und durch tollkühnes, übergriffiges Gebaren die ererbte soziale Ordnung niedertritt, zieht rasch sein eigenes Verderben herbei.
वामदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
A ruler’s legitimacy rests on protecting dharma: he should preserve the established customs and lawful ways of life of the people under his authority. If he disrupts inherited practice and oversteps scriptural limits through arbitrary force, he loses kṣatra-dharma and invites political and moral collapse.
In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on kingship, the sage Vāmadeva addresses principles of rule. Here he warns that a Kṣatriya king must govern conquered and unconquered groups with restraint, maintaining their traditional conduct rather than coercively overturning it; otherwise he falls from the dharma of rulership.