The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c13.2

c13.2

Not properly belonging to the class of king's officers and yet partly entrusted with similar functions and surpassing them in many respects in importance and influence, the house priest of the king, the *purohita*, occupies an extremely peculiar position in the Court. We must, if we wish to arrive at a clear conception of the nature of the *purohita*, realize the historical evolution of his position of power.¹