Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t1.12

c4.t1.12

A king was absolutely necessary. He was an essential factor for the well-being of the people. This was not only a theory but in actual feelings of the people of those times. As we shall see later on, the throne could on no account go vacant for a long time. Immediate steps were taken to raise a new king on the vacant throne. Well might the utterances of the people in the *Mahājanaka Jātaka*⁴ that 'the kingdom cannot be preserved without a king' echo the real feelings of the time. "A man needs king and warriors for protection" says a *gāthā* in the *Mahāukkusa Jātaka*.⁵ A condition of kinglessness (or more accurately statelessness) *arājatā* was always viewed with horror.⁶ The idea was so rampant in the minds of the people that not only human beings but "every species of animals—all bipeds and quadrupeds" were thought to have their own kings.⁷