271. The keeper of a cow has to wait, till it calves, for milk.
272. The sense is, I suppose, that if the king be overtaken by destruction, his officers also do not escape.
273. Rajnah, Nilakantha thinks, is an accusative plural.
274. Some texts read Saranikan, meaning traders that make journeys and voyages.
275. The king is God (incarnate) unto all righteous men, because they may expect everything from him. As regards the second line, the meaning depends upon bharati, which as the commentator explains means, "obtains affluence or prosperity." For Patukah some texts read Pavakah. The meaning then would be "becomes as a fire," i.e., destroys his own roots, or, probably, becomes destructive to others.
276. K.P. Singh, I think, translates this verse erroneously. The Burdwan version is correct. The speaker, in this verse, desires to illustrate the force of righteous conduct. Transcriber's note: There was no corresponding footnote reference in the text, so I have assigned this footnote to an arbitrary location on the page—JBH.
277. Teshu i.e., unto the ministers already spoken of.
278. The sense of the passage is that the king should not ride vicious elephants and horses, should guard himself against poisonous reptiles and the arts of women, and should take particular care while ascending mountains or entering inaccessible regions such as forests and woody valleys.
279. The sense is that although it is laid down that kings should fight with those only that are of the kingly order, yet when the Kshatriyas do not arm themselves for resisting an invader, or other orders may fight for putting down those that so arm themselves against the kings.
280. The 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.