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5. YASASTILAKA AS A SOCIO-POLITICAL RECORD
injustice; if he is lenient, indolent and bent on the pleasures of the moment, the ministers are bound to prove insolent and disloyal (3. 196):
सच्चिवचरितं तत्रैवैतत् प्रशाम्यति भूपतौ भवति इह य न्यायान्यायप्रतर्कणकर्कशः । सदयहृदये मन्दोयोगे तदात्वसुखोन्मुखे स्त्रिय इव नृपे हप्ता भृत्याः कथं न विकुर्वते ॥
The evil consequences of ministerial corruption and misrule aer summed up thus (3. 197):
प्रकृति विकृतिः कोशोत्क्रान्तिः प्रजाप्रलयागतिः स्वजनविरतिर्मित्राप्रीतिः कुलीनजना स्थितिः । कुसचिवरते राजन्येतद्ध्रुवं ननु जायते तदनु स परैर्दायादैवी बलादवलुप्यते ॥
"Sedition among the citizens, depletion of the treasury, decimation of the population, disaffection of kinsmen, hostility of friends, and the emigration of the high-born: verily, this is sure to happen when a king is attached to a wicked minister. Thereafter the former is ousted by force by his enemies or by his kinsmen.
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Magnanimity accompanied by pre-eminence is stated to be the sole cause of a king having honest persons to serve him. A king may be poor; but if he is magnanimous, he can have plenty of trustworthy servants: even when a pool of water is dried up, numerous trees grow under its bridge (3. 198):
अधनस्यापि महीशो महीयसो भवति भृत्यसंपत्तिः । शुष्कस्यापि हि सरसः पालितले पादपविभूतिः ॥
It is dangerous for kings to incur the displeasure of the people by favouring the unworthy and dishonouring the worthy. Several semilegendary examples are cited by Somadeva to illustrate the point. A king of Kalinga named Ananga, who had made a barber his commanderin-chief, was pelted to death with clods of earth by the enraged citizens. Similarly, a king named Karāla was killed in the Kerala country for making a gambler his priest; king Mangala was killed in the country of Vangala for making an outcaste his minister; while in the country of Krathakaisika a king named Kama met with a similar fate for making the son of a courtesan the Crown prince. On the other hand, in Vanga a king named Sphulinga was assassinated for humiliating his honest and sincere minister; in Magadha a king named Makaradhvaja was murdered for despising his pious priest; in Kaunga a king named Kuranga was killed for insulting his powerful commander-in-chief; and in Cedi king Nadiśa was similarly punished for removing his innocent eldest son from the position of heir-apparent.1
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Danger to kings lurks also in presents sent by rival courts, which should be carefully scrutinized before acceptance. It is said that king
1 Book III, p. 431.
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