Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s1.89

c6.s1.89

In the first place, the Brāhmaṇas were employed by the kings for sacrifice; in the *Mahāsupina Jātaka*,² the King is frightened with evil dreams. He asks the Brāhmaṇas at once who readily advise him to preform a complete fourfold sacrifice (*sabbacatukkena*). In another story,³ also, the Brāhmaṇas are called upon by the king to avert the impending misfortune, and the Brāhmaṇas, here also, advise him to perform the fourfold sacrifice. The king orders a great crowd of victims which is brought and fastened to the stakes (*mahājano thūṇūpanīto*). When however the king later learns the true cause of the moan, he causes the sacrificial pit (*yaññāvāṭam*) to be destroyed.