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116
YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
that the Christian ruler must trust in divine aid rather than in his own courage and that of his troops' would have appeared highly incongruous to the Jaina thinker.
Somadeva's ideal of kingship is evident from his description of the life of Yasodhara as a ruler. In presenting before us a picture of his activities, the author of Yasastilaka does not attempt to make him a paragon of virtue or even a hero, but is content to depict him as a prince diligent in discharging the duties that devolve upon him as the ruler of the state. Yet he came to an untimely end, because of his failure to take precaution against a woman's perfidy; and his example is intended to be an object lesson for other kings to profit by. Yasodhara, as represented by Somadeva, is very different from the Syrian king, mentioned by Dio Chrysostom,' who spent his life indoors with eunuchs and concubines without even a glimpse of army or war or assembly at all. It may be noted that Dio insists on virile pursuits for the king, and considers hunting to be the best recreation for him." Yasodhara does not indeed indulge in hunting, but we see him training elephants and armouring their tusks and practising archery. More questionable is his participation in the summer sports and the gaieties of moonrise in the company of young women, as described in Yasastilaka, Book III; but this may be regarded as a concession to prevailing custom and the conventions of kavya poetry, and is certainly contrary to Somadeva's considered opinion against the association of the king with the women of the harem.
Somadeva's discourse on the problems of government in Yasastilaka is doubtless unparalleled in kavya literature, but it should be remembered that earlier poets like Bharavi, Magha, Bhatti, and Ratnakara also deal with aspects of Niti especially in relation to matters affecting peace and war; while Bana's interest in the duties and responsibilities of kingship is revealed in Sukanasa's advice to Candrāpīḍa. Further, Bana, like Somadeva, records in Harṣacarita, Book VI, a large number of semi-legendary traditions illustrating the mortal danger to kings from carelessness and risky adventures and from the machinations of women. Somadeva and Bana both seem to draw on earlier sources, as similar stories, for instance, those about women murdering kings, are also found in Kautilya's Arthasástra I. XX and Kamandaka's Nitisära 7. 11. 51 ff.
1
In the Fourth Discourse on Kingship. Dio was a Greek moralist of the first century
A. D.
2
In the Third Discourse on Kingship.
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