The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c19.16

c19.16

The narration of Kalhaṇa reveals the working of the despotism in all its beneficence, its terror and its caprices. There were many pious, noble and generous kings. The court of the half legendary Saṃdhimat is said to have resembled the assembly of Śiva and to have been adorned by ascetics.¹ The shrines built by Lalitâditya, one of the heroes of Kashmīr history, were supposed to be numberless.¹ In the tenth century A.D. a single king granted 55 Agra-hāras, furnished with various implements, to Brāhmaṇas.² Many other kings founded Buddhist vihāras or Brahmanic temples, made grants of land for their maintenance and also showered generous gifts on Brāhmaṇas.³ Their example was followed by their relations and ministers. For instance, Amṛtaprabhā, one of the queens of the Buddhist king Meghavāhana, built a lofty vihāra for the benefit of foreign bhikṣus.⁴ Other queens followed suit.⁵ Kalhaṇa preserves the tradition that Tuñjīna I who ruled in ancient days afforded generous, unstinted relief to his subjects in days of famine.⁶ In historic times, too, there were rulers who supplied grain to people at cheap rates.⁷ The state does not seem to have founded many hospitals in Kashmīr at any epoch but they were not altogether unknown.⁸