The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c11.16

c11.16

these form, as it were, a legend on the reverse side of the coin, the side which depicts the true picture of the king—drunkenness and cruelty (in the Khantivâdi Jâtaka, II. 3919; in the Culla-dhammapâla Jâtaka, III. 178 sq.), corruptibility (in the Bharu Jâtaka, II. 169 sq.), untruthfulness and unrighteousness (in the Cetiya Jâtaka, III. 454 sq.). Neither obedience to the written laws,¹ nor to the customs that have become law through tradition seems to have prevented the king from realizing his whims and desires. Only the virtuousness of his counsellors in spiritual and worldly matters (atthadhammânusâsaka amacca), whose spiritual superiority sometimes (as in the Kukku Jâtaka, III. 317 sq.) triumphs over the weaknesses of the ruler, might be in a position to curb his arbitrariness and tyranny. Where this opposite force was absent and the ministers or the purohita only helped to carry out the desires of their ruler, there often arose circumstances which forced the people to take recourse to the only method available, namely, force, open rebellion. In the Padakusala-mânava Jâtaka (III. 501 sq.) there is probably a germ of history; in spite of its legendary garb it may have preserved the memory of actual facts. It is there narrated how a young Brâhmaṇa after he has discovered by magic the treasures stolen and concealed by the king and his purohita calls the king a thief in the presence of the assembled people and cries out: