Shloka 26

Āśrama-dharma: Duties of the Four Life-Stages (आश्रमधर्मः)

Devanagari script

सस्यानां सर्वबीजानामेषा सांवत्सरी भृति: । न च वैश्यस्य काम: स्यान्न रक्षेयं पशूनिति

Transliteration

sasyānām sarvabījānām eṣā sāṁvatsarī bhṛtiḥ | na ca vaiśyasya kāmaḥ syān na rakṣeyaṁ paśūn iti ||

Translation

Bhishma berkata: “Untuk menjaga tanaman pangan dan segala jenis benih, inilah upah tahunan: Vaiśya hendaknya mengambil seper tujuh dari hasil panen sebagai upah. Dan seorang Vaiśya tidak boleh sekali pun menumbuhkan keinginan, ‘Aku tidak akan memelihara dan melindungi ternak.’”

Word by Word

• {'sasyānām': 'of crops, grain in the field', 'sarvabījānām': 'of all seeds (all kinds of seed-grain)', 'eṣā': 'this (remuneration arrangement)', 'sāṁvatsarī': 'yearly, annual', 'bhṛtiḥ': 'wages, maintenance, remuneration', 'vaiśyasya': 'of the Vaiśya (the agrarian/mercantile social order)', 'kāmaḥ': 'desire, inclination, intention', 'syāt': 'should be (optative

• ‘should arise/occur’)', 'na': 'not', 'rakṣeyam': 'I should protect/guard (optative

• resolve/intention)', 'paśūn': 'cattle, livestock'}

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

• Bhishma
• Vaiśya
• crops (sasya)
• seeds (bīja)
• cattle/livestock (paśu)

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse defines a Vaiśya’s dharma in agrarian society: safeguarding crops and seed-stock is a recognized service with a fixed annual wage (a seventh share of produce), and cattle-protection is a non-negotiable responsibility rather than an optional preference.

What is happening in the narrative?

In the Śānti Parva’s instruction on righteous governance and social order, Bhīṣma advises Yudhiṣṭhira about duties and economic arrangements among social groups, here specifying the Vaiśya’s role in protecting agricultural resources and livestock and the proper form of compensation.