Shloka 98
Daṇḍanīti and the King as the Cause of Yuga-Order (दण्डनीतिः राजधर्मश्च युगकारणत्वम्)
राजा कृतयुगस््रष्टा त्रेताया द्वापरस्य च । युगस्य च चतुर्थस्य राजा भवति कारणम्,राजा ही सत्ययुगकी सृष्टि करनेवाला होता है, और राजा ही त्रेता, द्वापर तथा चौथे युग कलिकी भी सृष्टिका कारण है
rājā kṛtayugasraṣṭā tretāyā dvāparasya ca | yugasya ca caturthasya rājā bhavati kāraṇam ||
Bhīṣma said: The king is, as it were, the maker of the Kṛta (Satya) age; and the king becomes the determining cause of the Tretā and the Dvāpara, and also of the fourth age, Kali.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The king’s personal virtue and public policy are presented as the chief cause behind the moral condition of society; thus the character of an age (yuga) is effectively produced by the ruler’s adherence to dharma or his fall from it.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on rajadharma, Bhishma teaches Yudhishthira that governance is not merely administrative: the ruler’s conduct sets the ethical climate for the whole realm, even to the extent of being described as the cause of the rise or decline of the yugas.