Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.136

c2.s1.136

Now the induction of the disciple by the master is also an af-filiation by which the former is made directly a foster-son of the master and his wife and by analogy a foster-son of God and his consort. "The mother is Sāvitrī, the *ācārya* the father" (Manu, II. 170, 171, cf. AV. XI. 15. 3). The parallel may be noted in Hermes Trismegistus, *Lib.* XIII where "the mother is Sophia... the will of God the inseminator... some man who is a son of God the mediator in this palingenesis." The master (*ācārya*) is a Brāhman, that is to say a "son of Brahma," "son of God" (as the patronymic *brāhmaṇa* states) and represents Savitṛ, the *brahma*; in the same way the master's wife is the representative of Sāvitrī, Vāc, as *brahmajāyā*, "the Brāhman's wife" in our hymn. The pupil becomes a member of their household, in which he is fostered. In this connection it may be observed that there can be little doubt that the ancient European custom of "fostering" (of which our "boarding schools" are a late secular survival or superstition) originally involved an initiation. If marriage is also an af-filiation we can see why it is that the wife has been traditionally said to stand to her husband, who is also her Guru, *in loco filiae*, originally a metaphysical and afterwards a legal formula; the fact of marriage making her a "daughter." These conditions are still reflected in the fact that a Priest addresses the members of his flock as "My son" or "My daughter," and is himself addressed as "Father," and why a nun is addressed as "Mother," or "Sister." And if the King's "marriage" to the Brāhman is strictly analogous to the induction of a disciple by a master, we can as easily see that his seduction of "the Brāhman's wife" (Vāc, Sāvitrī, Sophia) in RV. X. 109 is analogous to that of a master's wife by a disciple, for which such dire penance is imposed (Manu IX. 237, 238, XI. 104-107).