Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t2.125

c4.t2.125

Just a few moments before we saw how the whole problem of succession to the throne was complicated by premature jealousies on the part of the princes. We also notice, *inter alia*, that kingship was generally hereditary in character (*Kulasantakam*),⁵ and the kingdom descended directly to the king’s eldest son,⁶ as were the conditions from the Vedic times.⁷ This was the general custom: Abnormal circumstances of course arose when this custom was, or rather had to be, set aside. That Kingship was hereditary is also clear from the stories where we witness people’s anxiety for the perpetuation of the royal line. Thus for instance in the *Suruci Jātaka*⁸, we observe a vast gathering of townsfolk in the palace courtyard with upbraidings. “What is it?” asks the king. “Fault we have no other to find,” reply the people, “but this, that you have no son to keep your line. You have but one queen, yet a royal prince should have sixteen thousand at the least. Choose a company of women, my lord: some worthy wife will bring you a son.” The monogamous king, however, refuses to flinch from his previous promise. Then the virtuous queen herself, playing the part of mother and wife to the king, presents to him a company of women. It is again the same anxious and assailing feelings of the people that drive the poor, helpless king of the *Kusa Jātaka*⁹ to agree to the barbarous proposal of exposing all the women of the harem, including even the chief queen, for promiscuous intercourse with his own subjects in order to obtain a son to succeed to the throne.