Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s10.47

c9.s10.47

The monarch during the Brāhmaṇa period was usually allowed to have **four queens**, *viz.*, the *Mahishī*, the *Parivṛiktī*, the *Vāvātā* and the *Pālāgalī*. The *Mahishī*, was the chief wife, being the first one married according to the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*.¹ The *Parivṛiktī* was the neglected or discarded wife, probably one that had no son. The *Vāvātā* is the favourite, while the *Pālāgalī* was the daughter of the last of the court officials.² The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*,³ however, refers to the "hundred" wives of king Hariśchandra. In the *Jātaka* period several kings kept a bigger harem. We are told in the *Kusa Jātaka*⁴ that king Okkāko (Ikshvāku) had sixteen thousand ladies in his harem among whom Sīlavatī was the chief (*aggamahī*). The king of Benares according to the *Dasaratha Jātaka*,⁵ had the same number of wives. In the *Suruchi Jātaka*,⁶ a king of Mithilā says, "Ours is a great kingdom, the city of Mithilā covers seven leagues, the measure of the whole kingdom is 300 leagues. Such a king should have sixteen thousand women at the least." Sixteen thousand appears to have been a stock phrase. The number is evidently exaggerated. But it indicates that the kings of the *Jātaka* period were extreme polygamists who frequently exceeded the Brāhmaṇic number of four or even a hundred queens.