Shloka 20
ब्राह्मणपूजा-राजधर्मः | Royal Duty of Honoring Learned Brahmins
भारत! उस नगरीमें निवास करते हुए राजसिंह भूपाल दिवोदासपर पुनः हैहयराजकुमारोंने धावा किया ।। स निष्क्रम्य ददौ युद्ध तेभ्यो राजा महाबल: । देवासुरसमं घोरं दिवोदासो महाद्युति:
bhārata! tasmin nagaryāṁ nivasataḥ rājasimhasya bhūpālasya divodāsasya punaḥ haihayarājakumārāṇāṁ dhāvaḥ abhavat. sa niṣkramya dadau yuddhaṁ tebhyo rājā mahābalaḥ; devāsura-samaṁ ghoraṁ divodāso mahādyutiḥ.
O Bhārata, while King Divodāsa—the lion among rulers—was residing in that city, the princes of the Haihaya clan again launched an assault upon him. Divodāsa, mighty and radiant, marched out to meet them and gave them battle—terrible and vast, like the war between gods and demons.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
A righteous king must protect his realm and subjects; when unjustly attacked, he should meet aggression with steadfast courage and disciplined force, fulfilling kṣatriya-dharma rather than yielding to fear or negligence.
The Haihaya princes attack again while King Divodāsa is living in a city. Divodāsa marches out and engages them in a fierce battle, compared in scale and terror to the mythic war between devas and asuras.