The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c11.11

c11.11

¹ See Hopkins l. c. p. 72. The later priestly author of the epic represents naturally the relation between the king and the priest differently. According to him, their relationship is one of mutual dependence. When moreover, Hopkins (p. 152) quotes Mahâbhârata V. 37.52 sq. as a proof of this where the power of the king is represented as five-fold and his chief strength as lying in his wisdom and where it is further said: And this wisdom is the hoard of the priests: it is to be remembered that one cannot read so much in the original source. We meet with exactly the same words in the Jâtakas (V. 120), where an auxiliary meaning which might refer to the peculiar position of the priest as adviser of the king, is inadmissible. The verses are only a proverbial, everywhere current garb of the thought that the king can do nothing with physical strength and riches when he lacks intelligence.