The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c11.69

c11.69

If there is neither a male heir nor a kinsman who can succeed to the throne, the successor seems to be chosen by the ministers; election by the people, as represented in the Vedas and the epics,¹ is nowhere mentioned. The legends speak of a remarkable custom which in such cases was connected with the election of the successor. Seven days after the death of the heirless king, the purohita lets a car, the phussaratha,² be driven, after the funeral ceremonies are over (III. 238; IV. 39; V. 248). By beat of drums it is announced in the city, "To-morrow we shall drive a phussaratha." The five insignias of royalty are placed on the car and this is put in motion by the ministers who reflect, "It will come to the man who will become the king." The car then leaves the city and remains, as is often the case in stories, standing at one and the same place, namely, the gate of the park, where it rotates ready to be driven by the future king. This king is then soon found out by the purohita; he ascends the car and is anointed by the purohita. Have we to see in these legends the mythical form of an actual event, namely, the selection of a king by the purohita, or is the phussaratha nothing but a product of the rich imagination of the story-teller? To this no definite answer can be given, so long as our knowledge of phussaratha is confined to the Jâtakas; but I don't consider the possibility excluded, that when the king died without an heir and the ministers chose a successor from among themselves or from another royal house, the latter was conveyed to his residence in a manner similar to the ceremony described in the stories, and that people spread rumours about him that he was discovered as the right man by a miracle introduced by the gods.