Tell me, O grandfather, how should the king behave if, despite his great wealth, he seeks more!

Bhishma said A king desirous of acquiring religious merit, should seek the good of his subjects and protect them according to considerations of place and time and to the best of his intelligence and power.

He should, in his kingdom, adopt such measures as would in his view secure their good as also his own.

A king should milk his kingdom like a bee collecting honey from plants. He should act like the cow-herd who takes milk from her without boring her udders and without starving the calf.

The king should act like the leech taking blood mildly. He should treat his subjects like a tigress carrying her cubs, touching them with her teeth but never cutting them therewith.

He should behave like a mouse which although has got sharp and pointed teeth yet cuts the feet of sleeping animals in such a way that they do not at all become conscious of it.

Little by little should be drained from a prosperous subject. The demand should then be gradually increased till it reaches a fair amount.

The king should increase the burden of his subjects by and by like a person gradually increasing the load of a young bullock. Treating them with care and mildness, he should at last put the reins on them.

If the reins are thus put, they would not refuse to to bear them. Indeed, sufficient measures should be taken for making them obedient. Mere entreaties to bring them to subjection would be of no avail.

It is impossible to treat all equally. Conciliating the leaders only, the ordinary people should be reduced to obedience.

Creating dissensions among the common people who are to carry the burdens, the king should himself come forward to conciliate them and then enjoy happily what he would draw from them.

The king should never impose taxes in a bad form and on persons who cannot pay them. He should impose them gradually and with mildness, in proper time and according to due forms.

The ways I suggest you are the legitimate means of king craft. They are not known as deceitful means. One who tries to control horses by unfair methods only makes them furious.

Drinking-shops, public women, pimps, actors, gamblers, and keepers of gambling houses, and other persons, of this sort, who always create disorders to the states, should all be checked. Living within the kingdom, these afflict and injure the better classes of the subjects.

No one should ask anything of any one when on distress prevails. Manu himself in days of yore has laid down this injunction regarding all men.

If all men were to live on alms and abstain from work, the world would, forsooth, come to an end.

The king alone is able to restrain and check. That king who does not prevent his subjects (from committing sins) is visited by a fourth part of the sins committed by them. This is the injunction of the Shrutis.

Since the king shares the sins of his subjects like their merits, he should, therefore, O king, check his sinful subjects.

The king who fails to restrain himself commits a sin. He is visited by a fourth part of their sins as he does acquire a fourth part of their merits.

The following sins of which I speak should be checked. they are such as bring on penury on every one. What wicked act is there that a person under the influence of passion would not commit.

A person under the control of passion indulges in stimulants and meat, and appropriates the wives and the wealth of other people, and sets a bad example to others.

They who do not live upon alms may beg at the time of distress. The righteous king should make gifts to them from mercy but not from fear.

Let there be no beggars or robbers in your kingdom. It is only the robbers who give to the beggars. Such givers are not benefactors of men.

Let such men live in your kingdom as advance the interests of others and do them good, but not such as root out others.

Those officers, O king, who realize from the subjects more than what is due should be punished. You should then appoint others who will take only what is due.

Agriculture, tending of cattle trade and similar other acts, should be pursued by many persons in such a way that tey may not suffer injury.

If a person engaged in agriculture, cattletending, or trade, feels a sense of insecurity, the king, incirs infamy thereby.

The king should always honour his rich su.bjects and should say to them,-Do you, with me, advance the interests of the people!

In every kingdom, the wealthy form an estate in the realm. Forsooth, a wealthy person is the foremost of men.

He who is wise, or brave or rich. a influential, or righteous, or engaged in penances or truthful in speech, or endued with intelligence, assists in protecting his fellowsubjects,

For these reasons, O king, do you love all creatures, and show the qualities of truth, creatures, and show the qualities of truth, men. sincerity, absence of anger and abstention from injury.

You should thus hold the rod of punishment, and multiply your treasury. and support your friends and consolidate your kingdom thus, practising the qualities of truthfulness and sincerity and supported by your friends, treasury, and army. sincerity, absence of anger and abstention from injury.