Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c3.s3.t3.25

c3.s3.t3.25

The fate of Daṇḍaki and his kingdom must be regarded as historical fact, since all our authorities are, as we saw before, at one on this point, though they ascribe different causes to it. That he made a 'lascivious attempt on a Brāhmaṇa girl' is attested by the *Arthaśāstra*⁴ and the *Rāmāyaṇa*⁵ and also by the Jaina *Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita*,⁶ while our *Jātaka*⁷ says that he treated the holy sage Kīsavaccha very contemptuously. These causes, of course, cannot be viewed in any other light except as later-day inventions of moralists and sectarian propagandists who, to suit their own purposes, explained away a fact of natural phenomena as resulting from a human sin.⁸ Any way, the fact remains, as the unanimous testimony of the above sources forces us to think, that the kingdom of Daṇḍaki round the river Godāvarī and the districts of Nāsik and adjoining parts of Mahārāṣṭra suffered from some terrible natural visitations. The statement of the *Jātaka*⁹ that the land was destroyed by a shower of 'fine sand' (*sukhumavālukavassam*) is in striking agreement with that of the *Rāmāyaṇa* (*pāṃśuvarṣeṇa*).¹⁰