Hindu Administrative Institutions c8.s2.109

c8.s2.109

There seems to be some confusion among scholars as to the true social and legal position of the Brahman-Purohita in ancient Hindu society. The confusion is due to two causes. (1) The wrong interpretation or forced construction put upon certain passages in the different texts by scholars. (2) The apparent inconsistency of the *Vedic* texts themselves. The former is unaccountable and even inevitable, each savant looking at them from his own view point and judging them as such. As for the latter, the confusion among the different *Vedic* Schools and teachers is only so at the surface; but once we dive deep into the mysteries of their thoughts expressed through their writings we clearly see that in fundamentals all are essentially of the same idea. It may be that in trifling detail they may disagree, and even this disagreement would tend towards agreement in the main. We will take an example of these two reasonings to make ourselves more clear. Both the *Vājasaneyi Saṃhita* (Śukla, *Yajur Veda*, chap. ix. 40 and chap. x. 17 and 18) and the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* contain the following text: