Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power in the Indian Theory of Government c2.s1.39

c2.s1.39

It is certain that Indra, the archetypal King, functions also as Priest (*brahmā*, RV. VIII. 16. 7, ŚB. IV. 6. 6. 5) and as Cantor (*udgātṛ*, JUB. I. 22. 2), that he is a Prophet (*ṛṣi*, RV. VIII. 6. 41) and that he is constantly identified with the Sun. King Keśin (the Keśin Dārbhya of JB. II. 53, 54, JUB. III. 29, and KB. VII. 4; cf. RV. X. 136) functions as the Gṛhapati of a *sattra* (ŚB. XI. 8. 4. 1); Weber thought this a survival from a former age (*Indische Studien*, X. 25, 94), but this is not acceptable, since whereas formerly only Vāsiṣṭhas could function as the *brahmā* (TS. III. 5. 2. 1, ŚB. IV. 6. 6. 5), now anyone having the requisite knowledge can be a Brāhman and may be addressed as Brahmā (ŚB. IV. 6. 6. 5, XII. 6. 1. 10), the Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads thus anticipating the supposedly Buddhist distinction of the “Brāhman by birth” (*brahmabandhu*, CU. VI. 1. 1) from the Brāhman by knowledge, Brāhman as *brahmavit*. We learn, too, that “formerly, an inveterated king aspersed his own son” (Comm. on ŚB. XIII. 8. 3. 19 where “the *kṣatriya* asperses the *kṣatriya*,” cf. Mbh. I. 69. 44, Poona ed., where Duhṣanta *bharatam . . . yauvarājye ’bhyaṣecayat*), a practise that seems to have survived in Siam in connection with the very important rite of the Tonsure of the Heir-apparent in which the King, impersonating Śiva, “poured the contents of the great chank shell upon the head of the prince” (H. G. Quaritch Wales, *Siamese State Ceremonies*, 1931, p. 130). In the *Mahā-Govinda-Sutta* the King himself asperses the Purohita (D. II. 232); and it was probably by an aspersion that the King exercised his own powers of “quickening” (*sava*), when he bestowed accession honours on the eleven members of his court (*senānī*, *purohita*, *mahiṣī*, etc.) who are called the “Recipients of Decorations” (*ratnínaḥ*, ŚB. V. 3. 1. 12,—not to be confused with the “Seven Jewels,” *saptá rátnā*, of a Cakravartin, RV. V. 1. 5, VI. 74. 1, BD. V. 123, although the categories partly coincide). Hocart points out that the “quickening” of the Ratnins is a ritual deification: it will be observed that excepting the Queen there are ten male Ratnins, and these with the King himself are presumably the “eleven Gods on earth” of RV. I. 139. 11.