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CHAPTER 7 abhrtanam bhaved bhartd Provider of the Unprovided abhrtanam bhaved bharta bhrtanamanvaveksahah 1 Be the provider of the unprovided. And carefully look after those who happen to be in your care. Thus says BhTsma, to Yudhisthira in the santiparvan, while com- menting on the actions and attitudes proper to a king; and then almost immediately, within a couple of chapters, repeats the ad- vice, quoting the nTtisastra, the science of worldly living, created by Brahma himself. 2 The king, for BhTsma, is thus a great grhastha, who is charged with extraordinary grhastha responsibilities. Like a grhastha he has the responsibility to provide for the sustenance of all beings, espe- cially the humans, who happen to be in his care. But, unlike an ordinary grhastha, he also has the responsibility to provide suste- nance to those who, though not his direct dependents, happen to lack sustenance in society. The king is an ordinary grhastha as far as his own household and those employed under his care are concerned. For them, his bhrtyas, he is the careful provider, anva- veksaka. But his responsibilities extend beyond them. The whole of the land is, in a way, part of his grhastha responsibility. The classical Indian texts speak repeatedly of the responsibility of the king towards the un-fed and un-cared for. And, as we shall see below, the texts also insist that the sin of hunger and want anywhere in the land, even of hunger and want caused by natural causes and 1 Maha s'anti 57.19, p. 4565. 2 Maha s'anti 59.54, p. 4573. 106
