________________
5. YAŚASTILAKA AS A SOCIO-POLITICAL REOORD
123
of platters, with the head shaven at random with the blade held in the reverse direction, and Bilva fruits suspended from the tuft of hair on the crest of the head. As we have already seen, the envoy of the king of Pancāla was threatened with humiliation of this nature on account of the hostility of his master to Yasodhara. In another story in Book VII, Section 31, the libertine Kadārapinga and his father, the minister Ugrasena, who connived at his adulterous adventure, are exiled by the king after indictment in the presence of all the people. Public humiliation of the kind noticed here seems to have been reserved for respectable offenders, and is heard of in the annals of other countries as well. In the eighth century at Rome, for example, the deposed Pope Constantine, after he was blinded, was led in derision through the streets seated on a horse with a woman's saddle and heavy weights attached to his feet.' Somadeva refers also to the torture of thieves and the indignities heaped upon them. In Yasastilaka, Book V, in the episode of king Sudatta, a thief accused of robbing and murdering a barber is condemned by the judges to 'picturesque imprisonment' (citro bandhaḥ) so that he might lose his life in ten or twelve days, the preliminary indignities to be inflicted on him being riding a donkey, and fastening round the neck a row of cast off earthen vessels."
Certain details about cruelty to animals are recorded in our work, In one of the birth-stories in Book V, a buffalo is tortured to death with revolting cruelty for killing the king's horse; and the incident is described also in Haribhadra's Samarāiccakahā. We are told that the feet of the animal were tied together, and burning coals heaped upon the body, while salt water was poured over the wounds, and he was allowed to drink water mixed with boiled extracts of peppers. On the other hand, the epitaphs on the dog and the peacock who were accidentally killed, as related in another story in the same Book, bear testimony to the love of animals, It is interesting to note that a contemporary record, the Atakūr inscription
the Ganga ruler Bütuga II, who took part in the battle of Takkolam in 949 A. D., tells us that Manālara who fought in front of him in the battle made a gift of land in memory of a hound, who had attacked and killed a boar, but was himself killed in the fight.
1 'Afers A ATETTcotiqa sana'p. 366. 2 'तदस्य पाटचरस्य चक्रीवदारोहणोच्छिष्टशालाजिरराजिबन्धविडम्बनपूर्वकश्चित्रो बन्धः कर्तव्यो यथाय नक्षत्रवाणिजो दश.
fraizafiat father fæla Ip. 245. 3 Soe Chap. III of this book. 4 See Chapters II and VII.
5 Sources of Karnataka History, Vol. I, p. 97. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
