offenders, they should then be exiled beyond thy dominions.  Even when deserving of punishment, thou shouldst, O kings, show them compassion.  If a Brahmana becomes guilty of Brahmanicide, or of violating the bed of his preceptor or other revered senior, or of causing miscarriage, or of treason against the king, his punishment should be banishment from thy dominions.  No corporal chastisement is laid down for them.  Those persons that show respect towards the Brahmanas should be favoured by thee (with offices in the state).  There is no treasure more valuable to kings than that which consists in the selection and assemblage of servants.  Among the six kinds of citadels indicated in the scriptures, indeed among every kind of citadel, that which consists of (the ready service and the love of the) subjects is the most impregnable.  Therefore, the king who is possessed of wisdom should always show compassion towards the four orders of his subjects.  The king who is of righteous soul and truthful speech succeeds in gratifying his subjects.  Thou must not, however, O son always behave with forgiveness towards everybody, for the king that is mild is regarded as the worst of his kind like an elephant that is reft of fierceness.  In the scriptures composed by Vrihaspati, a Sloka was in days of old applicable to the present matter.  Hear it, O king as I recite it.  ’If the king happens to be always forgiving, the lowest of persons prevails over him, even as the driver who sits on the head of the elephant he guides.’  The king, therefore, should not always be mild.  Nor should he always be fierce.  He should be like the vernal Sun, neither cold nor so hot as to produce perspiration.  By the direct evidence of the senses, by conjecture, by comparisons, and by the canons, of the scriptures O monarch, the king should Study friends and foes.  O thou of great liberality, thou shouldst avoid all those evil practices that are called Vyasanas.  It is not necessary that thou shouldst never indulge in them.  What, however, is needed is that thou shouldst not be attached to them.  He that is attached to those practices is prevailed over by everyone.  The king who cherishes no love for his people inspires the latter with anxiety.  The king should always bear himself towards his subjects as a mother towards the child of her womb.  Hear, O monarch, the reason why this becomes desirable.  As the mother, disregarding those objects that are most cherished by her, seeks the good of her child alone, even so, without doubt, should kings conduct themselves (towards their subjects).  The king that is righteous, O foremost one of Kuru’s race, should always behave in such a manner as to a\ old what is dear to him, for the sake of doing that which would benefit his people.  Thou shouldst not ever, O son of Pandu, abandon fortitude.  The king that is possessed of fortitude and who is known to inflict chastisement on wrong-doers, has no cause of fear.  O foremost of speakers, thou shouldst