1891.] Mr, Tawney — Some Indian Methods of electing Kings. 137 



as he was sleeping outside the city. The horse circnmambalated him 

 and stood still. The citizens observed with awe that he possessed the 

 auspicious marks of a king. They raised a shout of triumph and beat 

 drums of rejoicing. He rose up yawning." 



It is worthy of note that according to Herodotus, the seven con- 

 spirators agreed to decide the question of succession, by observing whose 

 horse neighed first in the suburb, (tt podo-raov) at sunrise. This consti- 

 tutes a further similarity between the Indian custom, and the custom 

 which I suppose to have existed in Persia. It seems natural that both 

 horses and elephants should be employed in India in choosing kings, as 

 Strabo tells us (Book XY, c. 41) that " no private person is allowed to 

 keep a horse or an elephant. The possession of one or the other is a 

 royal privilege, and persons are appointed to take care of them." 



The passages which I have quoted are taken with one exception 

 from Jaina works. But I find a trace of a similar custom in the 

 Darimukhajc4taka, (Fausboll, Vol. Ill, p. 238). In this Jataka we read 

 that on the seventh day after the death of the king of Benares without 

 male issue, the purohita sent out the johussaratho. The word phussaratho 

 is explained in Childers's Pali Dictionary as meaning simply " chariot." 

 In Sanskrit the word j^ushijaratha is said to mean a pleasure-chariot, as 

 opposed to a war-chariot. We are told in the Pali text that the custom 

 of the phussaratho will be explained in the Mahajanajataka, but I have 

 not been able to find this Jataka in the three volumes published by Faus- 

 boll. The jpJhussaratho left the city of Benares surrounded by an army of 

 elephants, cavalry, chariots and infantry, and with the beating of many 

 drums, arrived at the gate of the king's garden, in which the two 

 heroes of the tale, the Bodhisattva and his friend Darimukha were 

 sitting. Darimukha knew, as soon as he heard the sound of the drums, 

 that his friend the Bodhisattva would shortly be elevated to the 

 royal dignity, and as he preferred the life of a wandering religious 

 mendicant, he immediately left the garden, for fear that his friend might 

 appoint him commander-in-chief. The purohita entered the garden, 

 and finding the Bodhisattva sitting on the auspicious stone, and seeing 

 that he possessed the auspicious marks which entitled him to govern 

 even the four dvtpas, and being satisfied with certain indications of his 

 character, informed him that the crown had fallen to his lot. The 

 Bodhisattva, when he had satisfied himself that the late king had died 

 without male issue, accepted the throne, and his coronation (or rather 

 sprinkling) took place then and there. I own that in this last case the 

 appeal to divination seems to have degenera-ted into a mere formality. 



Of course the collections of Indian tales, from which I have made 

 extracts, contain incidents and plots common to the folk-lore of many 



