The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c11.41

c11.41

Beyond this power of inflicting punishment, the king’s authority does not seem, according to the Jâtakas, to have extended to the person of the subjects. We read nowhere in our texts of any right which the king had to force his subjects to military or other service; on the contrary, the limitations of the king’s power are distinctly pointed out, when the king in reply to the request of the yakkhini,¹ who was made his chief consort, to give her unrestricted power over the whole kingdom, says, “My love, in no way do all the subjects of my kingdom belong to me, nor am I their lord (mayhaṃ sakala-raṭṭhavâsino na kiñci honti, nâhaṃ etesaṃ sâmiko, I. 398 ); only over those who rise