Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s10.177

c9.s10.177

The *Padakusalamāṇava Jātaka*⁵ tells a story how the town and the countryfolk of a kingdom assembled (*jānapadā negamā cha samāgatā*), beat the king and priest to death as they became a source, not of weal, but of woe (lit. fear, *yato khemaṁ tato bhayaṁ*), and anointed a good man as king. A similar story is told in the *Sachchaṁkira Jātaka*.⁶ We are told in the *Khaṇḍahāla Jātaka*⁷ that the people of one kingdom killed the minister, deposed the king, made him an outcaste and anointed a prince as king. The ex-king was not allowed to enter into the capital city. Fick¹ points out that in the *Telapatta Jātaka* a king of Takshaśilā, says that he has no power over the subjects of his kingdom. This is in striking contrast with the utterance of Janaka quoted above.² Evidently the Royal power had declined appreciably, at least in some of the north-western *Janapadas*, since the days of Janaka.³