Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t3.9

c4.t3.9

We do not think there is any misstatement, it may be overstatement, of facts, when a *Jātaka*³ speaks of a king thus: "With taxes and fines, and many mutilations and robberies, he crushed the folk as it were sugar-cane in a mill; he was cruel, fierce, ferocious. For other people he had not a grain of pity; at home he was harsh and implacable towards his wives, his sons and daughters, to his Brahmin courtiers and the householders of the country. He was like a speck of dust that falls in the eye, like gravel in the broth, like a thorn sticking in the heel." Instances of such oppressive rulers are not rare. An oppressive king sucks the country dry of all wealth.⁴ By relying on the words of his wicked queen an arrogant monarch kills the prince by casting him down the precipice, heels head first, inspite of lamentations, entreaties and even moral arguments of the people, the courtiers and the women.⁵ He even dares to say: