he Bengal reading of this verse, which I adopt, is better than the
Bombay reading. The Bengal reading is more consistent with what follows
in verse 8. If the Bombay reading be adopted, the translation would run
thus:--"One should not fight a Kshatriya in battle unless he has put on
armour. One should fight with one, after challenging in those
words--'Shoot, for I am shooting at thee.'" K.P. Singh's rendering is
substantially correct. The Burdwan version, as usual, is wrong.

281. The distress referred to here is of being unhorsed or deprived of
car or of weapons, etc.

282. The original is very elliptical. I, therefore, expand it after the
manner of the commentator. Regarding the last half of the second line, I
do not follow Nilakantha in his interpretation.

283. This verse also is exceedingly elliptical in the original.

284. The sense seems to be that in fighting with the aid of deceit the
enemy should not be slain outright, such slaughter being sinful. Slaying
an enemy, however, in fair fight is meritorious.

285. This verse is not intelligible, nor does it seem to be connected
with what goes before.

286. The meaning is that king Pratardana took what is proper to be taken
and hence he incurred no sin. King Divodasa, however, by taking what he
should not have taken, lost all the merit of his conquests.

287. Nilakantha takes Mahajanam to mean the Vaisya traders that accompany
all forces. Following him, the vernacular translators take that word in
the same sense. There can be little doubt, however, that this is
erroneous. The word means "vast multitudes." Why should Yudhishthira
refer to the slaughter of only the Vaisyas in the midst of troops as his
reason for supposing Kshatriya practices to be sinful? Apayana means
"flight." I prefer to read Avayana meaning 'march.'

288. The protection of subjects is likened here to the performance of a
sacrifice that has the merit of all sacrifices. The final present in that
sacrifice is the dispelling of everybody's fear.

289. i.e., not at the weapon's edge, but otherwise.

290. Ajya is any liquid substance, generally of course clarified butter,
that is poured upon the sacrificial fire.

291. Sphis is the wooden stick with which lines are drawn on the
sacrificial platform.

292. The van of the hostile army is the place of his wives, for he goes
thither as cheerfully as he does to such a mansion. Agnidhras are those
priests that have charge of the celestial fires.