Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t6.36

c4.t6.36

All these are, no doubt, sound maxims and wise instructions imparted to the kings. They are Ideals preached to be translated into practice.⁶ And ideals, as we have often stated, are both the cause and the effect of actualities. Therefore, neither shall we attach too much importance to these, in considering the real state of affairs, nor shall we wholly pass them off as useless or unnecessary for our purpose. Nevertheless it should be stated here that the general impression that one gets after noticing the various stories connected with this question is, that the judicial arrangements were not sound and efficient, but corrupted and exploited to a degree.