The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c10.57

c10.57

Consecration was an important ceremony in the age of the Jâtakas. As in Brahmanical literature, the Purohita sprinkled the king-designate with water and so raised him high above ordinary mortals (III, 239; IV, 40). In III, 408, the ministers, Brāhmaṇas, gahapatis, citizens and dancing girls, stand round the throne at a distance from each other. In the Pañcaguru Jātaka (I, 470), the Bodhisatta accepting the kingdom at the people's hands, enters the town, decorated in heavenly style. and passes “into the spacious hall of the palace and there seated himself . . . on his jewelled throne beneath the white umbrella of his kingship. Round him in glittering splendour stood his ministers and Brāhmaṇas and nobles, whilst sixteen thousand nautch girls, fair as the nymphs of heaven, sang and danced and made music, till the palace was loud with sounds like the ocean when the storm bursts in thunder on the waves.”