[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c12.39 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c12.39 The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c12.39 - **Language:** English ### [c12.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12.39) So in the lowest rank of the courtiers the doorkeeper, dovárika, seems to have been; we meet him, in the list of persons mentioned in the Kurudhamma Jâtaka as those of which the king's Court consists, as occupying the last place but one, being above the public women (gaṇikás). And in the Mahâpiṅgala Jâtaka, the doorkeepers are mentioned after the "subjects in general" (amaccá ca bráhmaṇagahapatiraṭṭhikadovárikádayo ca) (II. 241). It is true that he is called in the Sonaka Jâtaka "noble gatekeeper" (ayyadovárika, V. 250), but he might, as here, appear a noble and important personage to a poor woodgatherer who wanted an audience of the king. According to the Mâtaṅga Jâtaka, his duty was to thrash Caṇḍâlas or similar vagabonds who wanted to peep at the palace, with sticks or bamboo posts, catch them by the throat and fling them on the ground (IV. 382). Also the treatment which the doorkeeper in the Mahâpiṅgala Jâtaka received during the lifetime of the cruel king does not indicate that he held a specially high rank. Whilst all people expressed jubilation and held festivities at the death of Mahâpiṅgala, one of the doorkeepers moaned loudly. On being asked by the new king why he alone moaned, whilst all else were making merry, and whether probably his father was good and kind to him, he replied, "I don't weep because Piṅgala is dead. For my head his death is a real happiness. For the King Piṅgala used, every time he went away from or came to the palace, to strike eight blows upon my head with his fists as with the hammer of a blacksmith. So he will also, when he goes to the Beyond, oppress in hell the doorkeepers of Yama with blows from his fists, in the belief that he bestows them upon me, and then they will cry out, "He gives us much trouble," and send him back here. He will, I fear, come back and strike blows, as before, with his fists upon my head; it is for this reason that I weep." - [Previous: c12.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12.38) - [Next: c12.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12.40) - [Up: c12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12) ## Linked texts (1) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.240) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c12.39) · Pramāṇa