The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.44

c10.44

things and made cruel sport of old men and women (II, 142). Another seized the wife of a hermit though he restored her later (IV, 23). Numerous other cases of tyranny can be cited (II, 122, 169, 391; III, 178, 454; V, 98). Sometimes the merits of spiritual or temporal ministers could make up for the defects of a king (III, 317) but in the absence of any constitutional check the ultimate remedy for oppression lay in revolt and assassination. In the Saccamkira Jātaka (I, 326) a king is driven out of the town by the enraged Kṣatriyas, Brāhmaṇas and others who instal a Brāhmaṇa on the throne. In the Padakusalamāṇava Jātaka (III, 513) a Brāhmaṇa discovers that a king and his priest have stolen and concealed a precious treasure. He contrives to get the people together and proclaims aloud:—