Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 49

YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Sankhanaka promises to speak the truth, but warns the king that what he is going to relate will to some extent put a slur upon him as well. It is the master's fault if his servants do as they like through a sense of their own power and influence.
The spy goes on to quote a large number of verses on the vil ways of ministers, composed by various poets by way of criticizing the king's failure to investigate the misdeeds of Pāmarodāra. The verses are mostly general in character, but a few directly attack the offending minister.
Sankhanaka gives an idea of Pāmarodāra's administration by saying that the latter demands unpaid labour when the people are busy sowing, and collects taxes before the corn is ripe, while the harvest is spoilt by the unlicensed movements of the soldiery.
The revelation of the spy is a rude shock to Yasodhara who is unwilling to believe his allegations, but Sankhanaka replies that, in all matters beyond the range of direct perception, a king must depend upon spiag as well as his own judgment, as if they were his eyes. He quotes a verse to the effect that when a king does not employ spies nor exercise his own judgment, his kingdom is at the mercy of his ministers, just as the milk belonging to a blind man becomes the prey of cats.
The low origin of Pāmarodāra is described as the cause of his overweening pride. His father was an oilman and mother a low-born woman, while his wife has had five husbands! The respect shown to such a man on account of his rank was bound to make him proud and overbearing. The spy then illustrates by various examples the danger to kings from elevating low-born persons to high positions in the state.
Describing Pāmarodāra as a monster of corruption, to wit, bribery and extortion, the spy tells Yaśodhara that the minister, after cheating him, as he did the former kings, will one day go over to some other king, like a trumpeter who serves any one employing him:
afy calafaian Teratara hetatt alueert Jagathatut: 1 3. 185.
Pāmarodāra's valour' is next described. He is brave and valiant in the presence of merchants, physicians, the weak and the deformed, but, like an ape, maintains a discreet silence in the presence of warriors and desperadoes: वणिजि च भिषजि च शूरः शौण्डीरो दुर्बले च विकले च । कपिरिव निभृतस्तिष्ठति रणशौण्डे चण्डदण्डे च ॥ 3. 190.
Speaking of the origin of villains, Sankhanaka relates that, in days of yore, there came into being fourteen, or rather eighteen, groups of them. He declares that the king's minister combines in himself the vices of all the categories of villains enumerated by him.