Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c28.3

c28.3

Much has been written about early contests between brahmans and kṣatriyas, and Muir has noticed most of them,³ but the subject may be discriminated more properly thus. Contests were of three kinds, first, where a king slighted, quarrelled with, injured or killed a brahman; secondly, where he, as a kṣatriya, arrogated the right to perform religious ceremonies himself and so disputed or infringed brahmanic privileges; and thirdly, where a kṣatriya sought to become a brahman. The vast majority of contests mentioned were of the first kind. Very few of the second kind are recorded, and they arose only in later times when the brahmans had established their right to perform sacrifices, such as king Janamejaya III’s dispute,¹ for it seems that in early times kings themselves sacrificed. These two kinds were the analogues of disputes and contests in Europe between the temporal and spiritual powers. The third is the only kind that concerns us here, and of this kind there is really none, as far as I am aware, except the great contest between Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra. That has been described above (p. 205) and was a personal quarrel, not a general denial of a kṣatriya’s right to become a brahman, and Vasiṣṭha’s denial of Viśvāmitra’s brahmanhood was simply a means of revenge.² The brahmans in later times distorted the story into ridiculous fables, which extolled their pretensions.