Tag Archives: Maha Pingala – The Tyrant
12. Maha Pingala – The Tyrant
Once upon a time, a wicked and unjust king named Maha pingala, the Great Yellow King, reigned at Benares. He ruled the kingdom sinfully after his own will and pleasure. With taxes and fines, and many mutilations and robberies, he crushed the folk as it were sugar cane in a mill; he was cruel, fierce, ferocious. For other people he had not a grain of pity; at home he was harsh and implacable towards his wives, his sons and daughters, to his Brahmin courtiers and the householders of the country. He was like a speck of dust that falls in the eye, like gravel in the broth, like a thorn sticking in the heel.
