Theory of Government in Ancient India (Post-Vedic) c11.37

c11.37

In the Jātakas as elsewhere in Indian literature the king is expected to protect the people against foreign aggression and any form of internal disorder or oppression and to administer impartial justice. The ministers should help the king in the performance of his duty. In the Rathalatthi Jātaka, the minister of justice who happened to be the Bodhisattva, the Buddha in a past life, impresses on the king the necessity of due investigation into a case before pronouncing the sentence.² There was an idea that the king could do as he liked with those who had violated the law but that he could not regard himself as a despotic sovereign in general.¹