Shloka 96
Daṇḍanīti and the King as the Cause of Yuga-Order (दण्डनीतिः राजधर्मश्च युगकारणत्वम्)
विधवाश्व भवन्त्यत्र नृशंसा जायते प्रजा । क्वचिद् वर्षति पर्जन्य: क्वचित् सस्य॑ प्ररोहति
vidhavāśva bhavanty atra nṛśaṃsā jāyate prajā | kvacid varṣati parjanyaḥ kvacit sasyaṃ prarohati ||
Bhishma dit : «En cet âge, les femmes sont souvent laissées veuves, et le peuple devient cruel. Les pluies ne tombent qu’en des lieux épars, et les récoltes ne germent qu’ici et là.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links moral decline with social suffering and ecological imbalance: when dharma weakens, society becomes harsh (nṛśaṃsa), families are destabilized (widowhood), and even nature appears irregular (uneven rains and crops).
In Shanti Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on dharma and the conditions of ages; here he describes distressing signs of a degenerate time—social cruelty and disrupted prosperity—using widowhood and erratic rainfall/crop growth as markers.