Shloka 44
अशुचींश्र यदा क्रुद्ध: क्षिणोति शतशो नरान् | सपुत्रपौत्रान् सामात्यांस्तदा भवति सो5न्तकः,जब राजा कुपित होकर अशुद्धाचारी सैकड़ों मनुष्योंका उनके पुत्र, पौत्र और मन्त्रियोंसहित संहार कर डालता है, तब वह मृत्युरूप होता है
aśucīn yathā kruddhaḥ kṣiṇoti śataśo narān | sa-putra-pautrān sa-mātyāṁs tadā bhavati so ’ntakaḥ ||
When a king, inflamed with anger, destroys by the hundreds men of impure conduct—together with their sons, grandsons, and ministers—then he becomes Antaka, Death itself. The verse warns that wrathful, indiscriminate punishment turns royal power into a force of annihilation rather than dharmic protection.
वसुमना उवाच
Educational Q&A
Royal authority must be governed by dharma and restraint. When a ruler punishes in anger and wipes out people wholesale—along with their families and officials—his rule becomes indistinguishable from Death, i.e., destructive rather than protective.
Vasumanā describes a scenario of a king, overcome by wrath, carrying out mass destruction of men deemed impure, extending the slaughter to their descendants and ministers. The statement functions as a moral diagnosis of tyrannical, anger-driven governance within the rājadharma discussion of Śānti Parva.