Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.16

c2.s1.16

⁹ *Agre*: not *ante principium* (where there is only the Supreme Identity, *tád ékam*, *yáthā strīpúmāṁsau sampáriṣvaktau*, BU. I. 4. 3), but with reference to the separation of the male and female principles, Sky and Earth, etc., *in principio*, because of which they are alien to one another until reunited by marriage: *ágre* here and *sṛṣṭaú* in ŚB. X. 4. 1. 5 imply “before the reign begins” or “at the beginning of the reign” (*pūrvakāle yasya rāṣṭrasya*, Sāyaṇa on AB. VIII. 1 and as in PB. VII. 6. 10); *sṛṣṭaú nánā* in ŚB. X. 4. 1. 5 corresponding to “twofold in the beginning” (*dvayáṁ . . . ágre*). *Agre* corresponds to *in principio* (Gen. I. 1), now rendered “in the beginning,” but which almost all mediaeval commentators, from St. Augustine (*Conf.* XII. 20, 27, 29) onwards, have understood to mean “in the first principle,” *in verbo*, *in sapientia*, etc., without reference to time.