136 Mr. Tawncy — Some India)!, Methods of electing Kings. [Nov. 



The above extract may be supported by another from the tale of 

 Virangada and Sumitra, which is an episode in the tale of Ratnasikha, 

 the 69th in the Katha Kosa. It runs as follows : — 



" The king of the city of Mahasala died without a son. Then the 

 barons had recourse to the five ordeals of the elephant, the horse, and 

 so on. The elephant came into the city park trumpeting. Then he 

 sprinkled the prince, named Virangada, with the water of inaugura- 

 tion, and taking him up in his trunk, placed him on his forehead, 

 (kumbha-sthala) . All the barons, and the chief ministers, and the other 

 ministers, and the crowd with them bowed before the king, and ex- 

 claimed ' Long live the king ! " ' 



The five ordeals are described even more clearly in a passage in the 

 story of Muladeva, the eighth in Professor Jacobi's " Erzahlungen in 

 Maharashrti," or " Tales in Maharashtri Prakrit." 



The story is said by the editor to be taken from Devendra's Com- 

 mentary on the Uttaradhyayana Siitra. The passage may be thus 

 translated : — 



" At this juncture the king of the city died without leaving a son. 

 They then had recourse to the five ordeals, (or instruments of selection, 

 Prakrit divvdni) . These roamed about in the city, and went outside it. 

 They came to Muladeva. He w^as found sleeping in the shade of the 

 champaka-tree. On seeing him the elephant trumpeted, and the horse 

 neighed : he was sprinkled by the pitcher and fanned by the chowries, 

 and the umbrella stood over him," 



It is remarkable in this connexion that Darius, son of Hystaspes, is 

 said to have been chosen king of the Persians owing to the neighing of 

 his horse, it having been agreed by the seven conspirators who destroyed 

 the usurper Smerdis, that the one of them, whose horse neighed first, 

 should become king.* 



It seems probable that this story points to a Persian custom re- 

 sembling that which prevailed in India. 



Indeed it appears that even in the latter country it was the custom 

 occasionally, to dispense with the elephant, and to rely upon the horse 

 as the sole instrument of selection. 



This is proved by the following passage taken from another story 

 in Dr. Jacobi's collection, the story of the Pratyeka Buddha Karakandu : 



" The three fled and reached Kanchanapura. There the king died 

 without male issue. A horse was let loose, and came near Karakandu, 



* Herodotni5 (Book III, cc. 83— 87) tells us that the success of Darius was due 

 to an artifice of his groom ; but at the same time he asserts that the neigliing of the 

 horse was accompanied by thunder and lightning from a clear sky. It is possible 

 that artiiice was not always absent in similar cases in India. 



