Raja Dharma (rāja-dharma)

Raja dharma is the dharma of kings, covering protection of subjects, the use of punishment, taxation, alliance and war. It occupies the opening and largest section of Bhishma's deathbed teaching, and its central claim is that the rod of punishment is what keeps the strong from eating the weak as fish do in water. The Mahabharata is uneasy with its own conclusions here, since the same book that praises non-injury as the highest dharma tells a king that mercy without force is a failure of duty.