Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.1

c2.s1.1

IT MAY BE said that the whole of Indian political theory is implied and subsumed in the words of the marriage formula “I am That, thou art This, I am Sky, thou art Earth,” etc. addressed by the Brāhman Priest, the Purohita, to the King in AB. VIII. 27. This being so, and as it has been pretended that these words were addressed by the King to the Priest,² it becomes desirable, if the theory is to be understood, to establish once for all that, as is explicitly stated by Sāyaṇa, it is the Purohita that utters them. A comparative study of many other contexts will show, indeed, that it is inconceivable that they should have been spoken by the King, who is unquestionably the "feminine" party in the "marriage" of the Sacerdotium (*brahma*) and the Regnum (*kṣatra*).