The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.50

c10.50

Royal idiosyncrasies could sometimes disturb the rule of primogeniture. A Benares king gives a province to each of his hundred sons as his education at the hands of a courtier is finished. The youngest, Saṃvara, however, chooses to live at court. The ministers ask the king on his death-bed, "When you are dead . . . to whom shall we give the White Umbrella?" "Friends," replies the king, "all my sons have a right to the White Umbrella. But you may give it to him that pleases your mind." On the seventh day after the king's death, the courtiers uplift the White Umbrella with its festoons of gold over the youngest prince. On hearing of his accession, his ninety-nine brothers say, "He is the youngest of all; the Umbrella does not belong to him. Let us lift the Umbrella over the eldest of us all." They besiege the capital but Saṃvara offers to divide his wealth among them. Peace is concluded and Saṃvara is recognised (IV, 131 et seq.). In another story, the elder prince at first declines the kingdom but later demands it and gets it from his younger brother who had been reigning in the meanwhile (IV, 168 et seq.). In IV, 84, a kingdom is divided among ten brothers. One of them gives his share to their sister, only stipulating that he should receive the taxes due to him. These stories may relate to a period or a locality in which the practice of primogeniture was arising but was not yet fully established. Elsewhere in the Jâtakas a king resists the importunity of his queen to give the kingdom to their son, because the latter is 'ill-luck.' Not even temporarily for some years or some months or some weeks but only for a single week would he place him on the throne. The prince's seven days' sovereignty is proclaimed throughout the city by beat of drum. He is led round the city triumphantly on an elephant under an umbrella, but on the sixth day his father has him beheaded (VI, 10 et seq.).