Shanti Parva

So the whole narrative seems to be trying to say, this is all very well, but, you know, there are times in certain conditions, in certain ways where kings actually need to be forceful and ruthless, but in accordance with some principle which the, the priests are somehow guardians of the wisdom behind.

Well, that's one of the principal, uh, arguments of the raja dharma portion of the Shanti Parvan, uh, which is the first collection of, uh, instructions that, uh, make up the Shanti Parvan.

Uh, and, uh, it's basically that, uh, kings need Brahmins, and the proper governance of a kingdom requires the input of Brahmins.

You know, even though kings w- in, in, uh, the very important text just before the raja dharma begins, when Yudhishthira asks Bhishma, "What is a king anyway?" It, it just seems like an ordinary person with two arms, two hands, two feet, et cetera.

He teaches.

He teaches Yudhishthira the whole of kingship, of duty, of Dharma, and of the rites in the long books of the Mahabharata called the Shanti Parva and the Anushasana Parva.

It is from those books that the story of Nimi comes.

The dying man on his bed of arrows passes on everything he knows about how to honor the dead.