Shloka 74
Daṇḍanīti and the King as the Cause of Yuga-Order (दण्डनीतिः राजधर्मश्च युगकारणत्वम्)
(श्लोकाश्लोशनसा गीतास्तान् निबोध युधिष्छिर । दण्डनीतेश्व यन्मूलं त्रिवर्गस्थ च भूपते ।।
yudhiṣṭhira uvāca |
daṇḍanītiś ca rājā ca samastau tāv ubhāv api |
kasyā kiṁ kurvataḥ siddhyet tan me brūhi pitāmaha ||
Yudhiṣṭhira said: “Grandfather, both the science of punishment and governance (daṇḍanīti) and the king together act as a single working whole. Tell me: by what action of which one does success in statecraft actually come about?”
युधिछिर उवाच
Educational Q&A
Effective rule is not achieved by a king alone or by abstract policy alone: success arises from their coordinated functioning—personal leadership and moral agency on one side, and the structured system of law, discipline, and measured punishment on the other.
In the Śānti Parva dialogue on kingship, Yudhiṣṭhira asks Bhīṣma to clarify the division of responsibility between the ruler and daṇḍanīti: which of the two must do what so that governance and its aims are actually fulfilled.