Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t1.22

c4.t1.22

Of course, Fick¹ is right to a certain extent in saying that these duties do not give us a picture of the king, no idea of the essence of the kingly power, of the obligations and functions of the Rājan, because ‘they are nothing else than prescriptions of the general Buddhistic morality applicable to all lay disciples. However, it must be remembered that this code of morality is not purely Buddhistic. For is not the above gāthā itself reminiscent of the old Upaniṣadic Ideal² or of that which is inculcated in the Bhagavadgītā in precisely the same words³ and which runs throughout in Indian Literature?’⁴ But these are ideals, no doubt. What about realities? Yes, the Jātakas also give us more practical and realistic precepts applicable to a king, which show a considerable knowledge of, and acquaintance with, the machinery of administration as it then existed. As an instance we might cite the following remarkable gāthās from the Tesakuṇa Jātaka⁵ which is, so to say, a compendium of maxims on Political Philosophy and which is sufficiently attractive to deserve more than a passing reference: