Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

SR No.: 001743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 432
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & Literature
File Size: 23 MB

Page 57

POLITY AND ADMINISTRATION
37
jewels.1 Efficient architects (vaddhakirayana) were employed to plan the royal palace in a manner so that it remained cool during summer and warm in winter. 2
(i) King's Harem-The harem of the king constituted the most important part of the royal house-hold. The chief queen of the king must have been the cynosure of all eyes of the royal harem's inmates, and she was known as rajamahişi (ranna-mahisi) or mahadevi. She was invested with a royal frontlet which shows that probably she also underwent coronation ceremony at the time of the king's coronation. Prabhāvati, the chief queen of Prabhākaravardhana, can be seen to remark : "This forehead in winning the honorable fillet of chief queen has enjoyed a thing scarcely accessible to desire.'' 4 The royal harem (oroha, amteurajo was divided into three parts-(i) junņa-aṁteura, (ii) nava-aṁteura and (iii) kanna-aṁteura. In the former resided the old ladies unfit for sexual relationship; the second one was inhabited by the young ladies in full-bloom of their youth; and in the third one lived the daughters of the royal family who had yet not attained the prime of their youth. The kings were always desirous of enriching their harem with beautiful women without any consideration of their caste or family background. A story narrates that five hundred girls of a town, who had gone to worship Indra, were kidnapped and taken away to the harem by the orders of prince Hemakumāra. The king on being confronted by the parents of these girls enquired if any one of them had any objection to take his son as their son-in-law. Finally, all the girls were married to the prince."
1. NC. 2, p. 154. 2. NC. 3, p. 44. 3. NC. 3, p. 536. 4. Harsacarita, p. 153. 5. NC. 4, p. 120. 6. NO. 2, p. 452. For king's harem see
Rāmāyana, 11. 10. 7. NO. 3, p. 243; also Byh. Bha. 4. 4153.
also-Arthašāstra, pp. 39-41;