Shloka 63
Varṇa-dharma and Rājadharma: Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry and Bhīṣma’s Normative Outline (वर्णधर्म-राजधर्म-प्रश्नोत्तरम्)
चैत्यद्रुमावमर्दश्व॒ रोध: कर्मानुशासनम् | अपस्करो5थ वसनं तथोपायाश्ष वर्णिता:
bhīṣma uvāca | caityadrumāvamardaś ca rodhaḥ karmānuśāsanam | apaskaro 'tha vasanaṃ tathopāyāś ca varṇitāḥ ||
Bhishma dijo: En ese tratado se describen también las medidas de la política y de la guerra—como destruir los árboles sagrados (árboles caitya) de la capital enemiga, cercar y bloquear su morada y su ciudad, y otras estratagemas—junto con la instrucción en labores productivas como la agricultura y los oficios, la construcción de las diversas partes de un carro de guerra, el modo correcto de establecerse en aldeas y ciudades, y muchos medios prácticos para sostener la vida.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma highlights that governance and worldly success rely on disciplined instruction in practical arts: strategic measures (upāya) in conflict, economic productivity (agriculture and crafts), and technical knowledge (like chariot construction). The verse situates such skills within an ordered body of teaching, implying that effective rule requires trained competence, not impulse.
Within Bhishma’s extended instruction in the Shanti Parva, he is summarizing what a certain authoritative teaching/text contains: methods for weakening an enemy (including siege and symbolic targets like sacred trees), guidance on occupations and crafts, and practical rules for settlement and sustaining life.