The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c17.88

c17.88

Some passages in Kādambarī bring out the royal luxury of the 7th century A.D. in extraordinarily vivid colours. When the roar of the drum, followed by the blast of the conch, announced mid-day, the king dismissed the court, rose from the hall of audience and took exercise in the hall of exercise with princes of his own age. He then entered the bathing place, which was covered with a white canopy, and had numerous inscriptions of bardic verses. “ . . . . It had a gold bath, filled with scented water in its midst, with a crystal bathing seat placed by it, and was adorned with pitchers placed on one side, full of most fragrant waters, . . . . . . . The handmaidens . . . . . duly besprinkled the king. Straightway there arose a blare of the trumpets sounded for bathing, penetrating all the hollows of the universe, accompanied by the din of song, lute, flute, drum, cymbal, and tabor . . . . . mingled with the uproar of a multitude of bards . . . . .” After bath and worship, his limbs were “anointed in the perfuming-room with sandal-wood, sweetened with the fragrance of saffron, camphor and musk . . . . .” After his meal and chewing of betel, he rose from his dais “with its bright mosaic pavement.” A portress, standing close by, hastened to him and “leaning on her arm, he went to the hall of audience, followed by attendants worthy to enter the inner apartments.” A long description is given of the hall, which showed as “though walled with crystal by reason of the white silk that draped its ends.” Reclining on his couch, “while a maiden seated on the ground, having placed in her bosom the dagger she was wont to bear, gently rubbed his feet . . . . . the king rested for a short time, and held converse on many a theme, with the ‘king’s’ ministers and friends whose presence was meet for the hour.”¹