The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c12.24

c12.24

peacocks are kept, and pheasants which have been domesticated, and among cultivated plants there are some to which the king’s servants attend with special care, for there are shady groves and pasture-grounds planted with trees which the art of the woodsman has deftly interwoven. . . Within the palace grounds there are also artificial ponds of great beauty, in which they keep fish of enormous size but quite tame. No one has permission to fish for these except the king’s sons while yet in their boyhood. These youngsters amuse themselves without the least risk of being drowned while fishing in the unruffled sheet of water and learning how to sail their boats.”¹ Quintus Curtius has the following general description of Indian potentates:—“The luxury of their kings, or as they call it, their magnificence, is carried to a vicious excess without a parallel in the world. When the king condescends to show himself in public his attendants carry in their hands silver censors and perfume with incense all the road by which it is his pleasure to be conveyed. He lolls in a golden palanquin, garnished with pearls which dangle all round it, and he is robed in fine muslin embroidered with purple and gold. Behind his palanquin follow men-at-arms, and his body-guards, of whom some carry boughs of trees on which birds are perched trained to interrupt business with their cries. The palace is adorned with gilded pillars, clasped all round with a vine embossed in gold, while silver images of those birds which most charm the eye diversify the workmanship . . . (After audience) his slippers being . . . taken off, his feet are rubbed with scented ointments. His principal exercise is hunting; amid the vows and songs of his courtesans he shoots the game enclosed within the royal park. The arrows, which are two cubits long, are discharged with more effort than effect, for though the force of these missiles depends on their lightness, they are loaded with an obnoxious weight. He rides on horseback when making short journey, but when bound on a distant expedition he rides in a chariot mounted on elephants, and, huge as these elephants are, their bodies are covered completely over with trappings of gold. That no form of shameless profligacy may be wanting, he is accompanied by a long train of courtesans carried in golden palanquins, and this troop holds a separate place in the procession from the queen's retinue, and is as sumptuously appointed. His food is prepared by women, who also serve him with wine, which is much used by all the Indians. When the king falls into a drunken sleep his courtesans carry him away to his bed-chamber invoking the gods of the night in their native hymns."¹ Court festivals had already sprung up. It seems a great festival was held when the king washed his hair.² Strabo says that "the care of the king's person is entrusted to women, who also are bought from their parents. The body-guards and the rest of the soldiery are posted outside the gates. . . . . The sons succeed the father. Moreover, the king does not sleep in the day-time and at night he is compelled, as a precaution against attack, to change his couch from hour to hour. . . . "³