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162 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
us how on failure of heir at Benares a prince of Magadha was elected king.
The monarch during the Brāhmaṇa period was usually allowed to have four queens, viz., the Mahishi, the Parivriktī, the Vāvātā and the Pālāgali. The Mahishī, was the chief wife, being the first one married according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. The Parivriktī was the neglected or discarded wife, probably one that had no son. The Vāvātā is the favourite, while the Pālāgali was the daughter of the last of the court officials. The Aitareya Brāhmana, however, refers to the "hundred" wives of king Hariśchandra. In the Jataka period several kings kept a bigger harem. We are told in the Kusa Jātaka+ that king Okkāko (Ikshvāku) had sixteen thousand ladies in his harem among whom Silavati was the chief (aggamahesī). The king of Benares according to the Dasaratha Jataka,5 had the same number of wives. In the Suruchi Jataka, a king of Mithilā says, "Ours is a great kingdom, the city of Mithilā covers seven leagues, the measure of the whole kingdom is 300 leagues. Such a king should have sixteen thousand women at the least.” Sixteen thousand appears to have been a stock phrase. The number is evidently exaggerated. But it indicates that the kings of the Jūtaka period were extreme polygamists who frequently exceeded the Brāhmaṇic number of four or even a hundred queens.
The king was consecrated after his succession or election with an elaborate ritual which is described in several Brāhmanas, and for which the appropriate formulas. (mantras) are given in the Vedic Samhitās. Those
1 VI. 5. 3. 1. Ved. Ind., I. 478. 2 Weber and Pischel in Vedic Index, 1,478. 3VI1. 13.
4 No. 531. 5 No. 461. The Rāmāyana (II. 34. 13.) allows this king only 750 ladies besides the chief consorts,
6 No. 489,
