Sambodhi 1978 Vol 07

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Sāmrājyalaksmipīthika give cows, gold, and land to priests (Patala 130). In this way hunting also has many magicoreligious aspects.
Castles
Forts are very much essential for a king. Therefore the Sāmrājyalaksmividhāna of Ākāśabhairavakalpa deals with castles in details. While describing the importance of castles, it is said that castles form an important source of strength and king without castles gets defeated by his enemies. Therefore a king should insist on building up of castles. There are following kinds af castles.
Giridurga (castle on a mountain) -
This is a citadel on a mountain, which is difficult to climb upon, surrounded by trees of Sāla, and containing an inexhaustible source of water. There are eight kinds of mountain-castles. i) Bhadra- This is of circular size and in one single rock. A king who builds such a castle gets elephants of the Bhadra auspicious kind) and rules over the whole earth. ii) Atibhadra- This castle is of square size. iii) Candra- The trunk of this castle is like a column and the surface at the top of it is like moon. The king who has such a castle, rules over all the directions like the moon. iv) Ardhacandra- This castle is neither too high nor too dwarfish. There are numerous lakes on this kind of castle. Its shape is like half moon (ardhacandra). The owner of such a castle gets victory over his enemy and protects the land. v ) Nabhı - This castle is thin at the bottom and broad at the head. It is growing big upwards slowly. The lord of this castle conquers his enemies as Padmanabha (Vişnu). vi) Sunābha- Castle of this kind is broad at the bottom and thin at the top. The lord of castle of this kind rules the earth for a long time and lives long vii) Rucira - Castle of this kind appears to be like a ladder. A king having such a castle becomes the chief of many kings. viii) Vardhamana - castle of this kind grows slowly like a drum. The owner of such a castle grows in respect of wealth and granary (Patala 31). In this way there are some magical results of possessing a certain kind of castle.
The mountain castles of the following kinds give some bad results in a similar magical manner and therefore are to be avoided : castles like a needle, man, winowing basket, vehicle, stick, plough etc., castles broken in the middle, very much crooked etc. A king should never reside on such castle, lest be would get some bad results. Thus if he resides on a castle with point like needle, the king would be defeated; if on a castle of human shape he would be valourless, if on a castle of the shape of a vehicle, there would be some mistakes; if on a castle broken in the middle, the