नाराजके जनपदे सिद्धार्था व्यवहारिणः।
कथाभिरनुरज्यन्ते कथाशीलाः कथाप्रियैः॥
nārājake janapade siddhārthā vyavahāriṇaḥ
kathābhir anurajyante kathā-śīlāḥ kathā-priyaiḥ
na = not; arājake = devoid of a bona fide king; janapade = in a place; siddha-arthāḥ = do attain their purposes; vyavahāriṇaḥ = disputants and merchants; kathābhiḥ = to their talks; anurajyante = do not make attached; kathā-śīlāḥ = and speakers on the Itihāsas and Purāṇas; kathā-priyaiḥ = interested listeners.
In a place devoid of a bona fide king, disputants and merchants do not attain their purposes, and speakers on the Itihāsas and Purāṇas do not make interested listeners attached to their talks.
1 Vāda refers to engagement in a debate by a person to understand the truth about the debated contention. Jalpa refers to engagement in a debate by a person to prove that he is right. Vitaṇḍā refers to engagement in a debate by a person to prove that his opponent is wrong.
It is implied that disputants don’t attain their purposes because of the absence of a [neutral] person who regulates and concludes the disputes and because such disputants almost always engage in bribery. The speakers on the Itihāsas and Purāṇas don’t make interested listeners attached to their talks because the listeners lack a sound state [of body and mind].
The second line also indicates that debaters are dissatisfied by debating with people from the society using vāda, jalpa or vitaṇḍā since there is no king to award them gifts and so on.1