Shloka 32
Prāyaścitta and Contextual Non-Culpability (प्रायश्चित्त-निमित्त-अदोषवाद)
चतुष्पात् सकलो धर्मों ब्राह्मणस्य विधीयते । पादावकृष्टो राजन्ये तथा धर्मो विधीयते
catuṣpāt sakalo dharmo brāhmaṇasya vidhīyate | pādāvakṛṣṭo rājanye tathā dharmo vidhīyate ||
ဗျာသက မိန့်တော်မူသည်— «ဗြာဟ္မဏအတွက် ဓမ္မသည် “ခြေလေးချောင်း” ပြည့်စုံသကဲ့သို့ အပြည့်အဝ သတ်မှတ်ထား၏။ က္ရှတ္တရိယအတွက်လည်း ဓမ္မကို သတ်မှတ်ထားသော်လည်း “ခြေတစ်ချောင်း” လျော့နည်းသဖြင့် ဗြာဟ္မဏ၏ ဓမ္မကဲ့သို့ မပြည့်စုံ»။
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse presents a graded model of varṇa-based duties: the Brāhmaṇa is enjoined to uphold dharma in its full, ‘four-part’ completeness, while the Kṣatriya’s dharma is described as comparatively reduced by one part—suggesting differing expectations and emphases in ethical-religious obligations across social roles.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional discourse on governance and righteousness after the war, Vyāsa states a normative principle about how dharma is prescribed for different varṇas, contrasting the completeness of Brāhmaṇa-dharma with the comparatively diminished form assigned to the royal/warrior class.