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168 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXÍ
the birth of king Candapajjota is said to have resulted from an appointment and hol contact. Thus the king with the princes and courtiers as well as landed and business aristocrats may be shown to have played the part of subverters of the social order and social morality. With them polygamy was the rule and monogamy the exception, with the result that the princes of the royal blood and sons of the Brahmins were distinguished by the names of their mothers, e.g., Ajàtasattu Vedehiputta, Săriputta, Moggaliputta, even the Barhut Gateway inscription of Dhanabhūti bearing a clear testimony to this. It was a custom among the Vajjis, as noted before, to make courtezans (ganikās) from girls of perfect beauty.
The marrying of the maternal uncle's daughter was prevalent in some of the royal families, as also among certain ruling clans, such as, the Šakyas and Koliyas. The tradition of polyandry is associated, in the Jātakas and Great Epic, with the five sons of Pandu and Kanha, described in the former as daughter of the king of Kāsī, and in the latter as daughter of king Drupada. The Pali legend of the Šākyas
1 Buddhistic Studies, ed. by B. C. Law, Chap. VII.
2 Even a righteous king like Asoka had queens more than ore. Jataka, ii, p. 323.
Prince Siddhartha married Rahulamāta who was his maternal" uncle's daughter.
