Local Government in Ancient India c9.45

c9.45

We have in our literature even some examples of king-craftsmen,² showing that in those days the practice of a craft was not considered derogatory to the dignity of a prince. The *Kusa-Jātaka* (no. 531), for instance, mentions a prince who only consents to marry when a princess is found exactly like a golden image which he himself had fashioned and which was far superior to that made by the chief smith employed for the purpose. Instances of royal craftsmen are also furnished by the *Mahāvaṃsa* (cf. XXX. and XXXIV.). A king is described as a 'skilful carver and painter who wrought a beautiful image of the Bodhisatta and also a throne, a parasol, and a state-room with beautiful work in ivory made for it, and who himself taught the arts to his subjects'. In Bāṇa's *Harṣacarita* IV. 157 it is stated how on the occasion of the marriage of a princess 'even kings girt up their loins and busied themselves in carrying out decorative work set as tasks by their sovereign'.