Shloka 24
Kṣātra-Dharma, Daṇḍanīti, and Social Order
Indra–Māndhātṛ Dialogue
यदि हासौ भगवान् नाहनिष्यद् रिपून् सर्वानसुरानप्रमेय: । न ब्राह्मणा न च लोकादिकर्ता नायं धर्मो नादिधर्मो5भविष्यत्
yadi hāsau bhagavān nāhaniṣyad ripūn sarvān asurān aprameyaḥ | na brāhmaṇā na ca lokādikartā nāyaṃ dharmo nādi-dharmo bhaviṣyat ||
Indra said: “If that immeasurable Lord had not slain all the hostile Asuras, then neither would the Brahmins have been known, nor would the primal creator of the worlds have been manifest. This Dharma would not have endured, nor would the very notion of primordial Dharma have come to be recognized.”
इन्द्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma and the institutions that uphold it (such as Brahminical guardianship of sacred knowledge and the creator’s ordered cosmos) depend on divine intervention against forces that threaten cosmic stability; the Lord’s protection is presented as a prerequisite for the visibility and continuity of Dharma.
Indra praises the Lord’s decisive destruction of the Asuras, arguing that without this act the world’s foundational order—Brahmins, the primal creator, and Dharma itself—would not be established or recognizable.