Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.18

c2.s1.18

The expressions *púras tvā karavai* and *tvát prasūtáḥ* imply the technical terms Purohita, Purodhātṛ, Rājasū and Rājasūya. The Purohita, literally "one put in front," "one who takes precedence," like Agni or Bṛhaspati *in divinis*, is the King's Brāhman adviser and minister. The Purodhātṛ is the King himself, who appoints the Purohita or, more literally, "puts him in front." The Devasvaḥ are the deities—Savitṛ, Agni, Soma, Bṛhaspati, Indra, Rudra, Mitra and Varuṇa—by whom the King is "quickened" through the Priest who invokes them as "King-quickeners" (*rājasvaḥ*), so that "It is these Gods that now quicken (*suvate*) him, and having been quickened (*sūtáḥ*) by them, he is hence-forth quickened" (*śváḥ sūyate*, ŚB. V. 3. 3. 11, 13).¹¹ He rules, then by "Divine Right." The Rājasūya, or alternatively Varuṇasava is, then, the sacrificial and initiatory ritual of the "King's Quickening"; the most essential part of this rite is an "aspersion" (*abhiṣeka*, *abhiṣecanīya*), cf. AV. IV. 8. 1, and this corresponds to what would now be called a "Coronation."¹² The "Quickening" refers to the fact that the rite is both initiatory and sacrificial; the King is brought forth, new-born from the initiatory death, by the officiating Priests who are, in this respect, his "fathers."¹³