Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1410

XVIII, 26.
MISCELLANEOUS.
217
manifest in their speeches; whatever sentence they may pass, whether unjust or just, settles the law between litigant parties.
20. (Law) personified as a king, roams on earth visibly, with a thousand eyes. Mortals cannot live at all if they transgress his commandments.
21. Whatever a king does is right, that is a settled rule; because the protection of the world is entrusted to him, and on account of his majesty and benignity towards living creatures.
22. As a husband though feeble must be constantly worshipped by his wives, in the same way a ruler though worthless must be (constantly) worshipped by his subjects.
23. In order that mortals, fearing the orders issued by kings, might not swerve from the path of duty, therefore royal orders are declared to arise from lawsuits.
24. It is for the establishment of order that various laws (karitra) have been proclaimed by kings. A royal order is declared to overrule such laws even.
25. A ruler has purchased his subjects through (the practice of) austerities; therefore the king is their lord. For that reason, his bidding must be obeyed; their livelihood even depends on the
king.
26. Kings, endowed with immense power, appear (variously) in the five different forms of Agni, Indra, Soma, Yama, and the God of Riches.
24. Karitra seems to mean law' or 'custom' in this place. Regarding the comparative authority of karitra and rågasasana, 'a royal order,' see p. 7, note. The Nepalese MS. omits 23, 24.
26. Read rûpani in the text.
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