Public Administration in Ancient India c5.25

c5.25

But this ascendancy had not been won without a struggle. Although the contest was not always bloody, yet there appears to be some truth in the story of Parasu-Rāma who is said to have cleared the earth of the Kshatriyas "thrice seven times." It does not, however, seem that the Brāhmanas had always the best of the business, and possibly the failure of the appeal to force led them to adopt milder methods for the attainment of their object. The allegory of Mitra and Varuna in the Satapatha-Brāhmana correctly represents the final rapprochement between the two classes. “Mitra is the priesthood, and Varuna, the nobility; and the priesthood is the conceiver, and the noble is the doer. . . . So the two united.”¹ But they did not unite on an exactly equal footing, for we are told that “it is quite proper that a Brāhmana should be without a king, but were he to obtain a king, it would be conducive to the success (of both). It is, however, quite improper that a king should be without a Brāhmana, for whatever deed he does, unsped by Mitra, the priesthood, therein he succeeds not.”² Gautama says, “Kshatriyas who are assisted by the Brāhmanas prosper, and do not fall into distress.” And further, “A king and a Brāhmana, deeply versed in the Vedas, these two uphold the moral order of the world.”