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A CRITICAL STUDY OF PAUMACARIYAM
strewing flowers on the roads (13.5). When it was acceded to by Indra, he was released by Rāvana. The rebels were duly punished. Kundalamandita, a rebel belonging to Durgamapura was released by Daśaratha only when the former duly satisfied the latter with his behaviour (26.32).
Sometimes a king was kidnapped and harassed. Rudrabhūti, the Mleccha chief of the Kāgonanda tribe captured Bālikhilya, the king of Kūvavadda and kept him as a prisoner. He used to receive a major part of the revenue from the capital (34.25) of Bālikhilya. It seems to be a case of holding on ransom. Bālikhilya was freed when Rāma and Lakşmana happened to overpower Rudrabhūti (34.41).
Causes of Battle: The most prevalent cause of war was the policy of expansion and aggrandisement. It was executed in two ways, firstly by killing the king of another country and occupying his throne. Thus Satrughna killed Madhu, the lord of Mathură and declared himself as the king of that city (Ch.86). Virādhita's father was killed and his capital city Pátāla kārapura was occupied by Kharadūşana (9.20-22). This policy was followed seldom. The second policy which was the most popular was that the powerful king subjugated the kings of various other countries and made them to accept his suzerainty (8.11;9.28; 16.22; 22.57, 58,92; 33.77; 37.19; 98.57-68). The subjugated kings were autonomous in their own states.
The other cause of battle was for the marriage of the princesses i. e. if a princess (5.65-77;9.28; 90.12; 98.11) who was demanded by a particular king was not married to him then he waged battle against the father of the princess.
Sometimes at the time of 'svayarn vara' ceremony, the disgruntled princes fought with the prince who was chosen as her husband by the bride (6.176;24.19). The disgruntled sons of Laksmana had tried to fight with Lava & Alkusa on the similar issue, but the war of fatricide was averted by the wise (106.13) counsel of their ministers and mothers. The sons of Srişeņa had fought between each other for a courtezan (15.19) only.
Previous enmity and insult were also responsible for a battle. Hanu fought with Mahendra because the former's mother was exiled from the country (50.5) by Mahendra. Lavana & Aukusa fought with Rāma on the same reason as their mother was exiled by Rāma 99.20).
Sometimes even a trifle caused a furious battle. Rāvana's Jina worship was disturbed by the overflow of the water of the Narmada which was sudenly released by the sporting king, Sahasrakirana. This caused a battle between Rāvana and Sahasrakirana (10.48).
