Sutra 68
पुत्रभ्रातृबन्धुषु सामदानाभ्यां सिद्धिरनुरूपा पौरजानपददण्डमुख्येषु दानभेदाभ्यां सामन्ताटविकेषु भेददण्डाभ्याम् ॥ कZ_०९.७.६८ ॥
putra-bhrātṛ-bandhuṣu sāma-dānābhyāṃ siddhir anurūpā paura-jānapada-daṇḍa-mukhyeṣu dāna-bhedābhyāṃ sāmanta-āṭavikeṣu bheda-daṇḍābhyām
With sons, brothers, and close kin, success should be sought appropriately through conciliation and gifts. With townsmen, countryside subjects, and key coercive officials, success is to be secured through gifts and division. With feudatories and forest tribes, success is to be achieved through division and force.
FAQs
Instrument-choice must match the constituency: softer tools for kin, mixed inducement-and-fragmentation for the populace and power-holders, and harder tools (division and force) for semi-autonomous and frontier groups.
It treats legitimacy and cohesion as cheaper to maintain internally (sāma/dāna), while frontier and subordinate powers may require coercive containment (bheda/daṇḍa).