State and Government in Ancient India c15.10

c15.10

Purohita, the royal chaplain, figures in all the lists of *ratnins* and naturally. Gods, it was believed, would not accept the oblations of a king, who had no competent chaplain; the presence of this personage in the ministry was indispensable in an age which believed that victories on the battlefield depended largely upon the favour of gods to be secured through proper sacrifices,