Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.174

c2.s1.174

*mantram*,⁴⁴ could only have been spoken by the Purohita to the King may be said to have been proved by the already accumulated evidence of the masculinity of the Sacerdotium with respect to the Regnum. That *amo 'ham asmi* must have been spoken by the Priest is further confirmed by the fact that in CU. V. 2. 6 the would-be King addresses the Fire (the archetype of the Purohita) with the words *amo nāmā 'si*, "Thy name is 'That' (or 'He')", cf. CU. VI. 1. 1 "*Sā* is This (Earth), *ama* is Agni." That it is the Purohita that utters the words "I am That (or He)" is stated explicitly by Sāyaṇa (AB. VIII. 27, Commentary, *Bib. Ind.*, 1896, IV. 288, line 8, *purohitaḥ aham amaḥ*). Sāyaṇa also makes it clear that the whole of the rest of this section, beginning *yā oṣadhī . . .*, is likewise spoken by the Purohita, who thus consecrates the seat given to him by the King and at the same time blesses the realm. The Purohita is the "man" and the King the "*woman*." Observe that it is to the King that the words "Bear thou rule" (*tváṃ ví rāja*) are addressed in AV. III. 4. 1, and that it is with reference to a wife that the words "let her bear rule" (*ví rājatu*) are spoken in AV. II. 36. 3.