The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c13.21

c13.21

We must always, however, bear in mind if we want to get a right estimate of the position of the purohita, that such a position of worldly power was neither necessarily connected with his office as house priest nor determined by proper regulations; the political power of the purohita was purely individual and had its source wholly and solely in the personal influence which he obtained over the king through his function as sacrificer and magician. From this side, in all cases, was derived the chief strength as well as the chief activity of the purohita. We get no impartial estimate or complete picture of his work as a sacrificial priest—and, indeed, nothing else can be expected from the standpoint of the Jâtakas—our sources make the purohita only exhibit his priestly office from the standpoint of its lucrativeness. When in the Lohakumbhi Jâtaka (III. 45), at the beginning of a sacrifice,¹ the eldest pupil comes to the purohita and asks, “Is it not mentioned, O teacher, in our Vedas that the killing of a man is not a fortune-bringing act?”, the latter replies: “You bring the gold of the king, we shall have meat. Remain silent.” In a similar manner the purohita stops in the Mahâsupina Jâtaka (I. 343) the wise and learned scholar who likewise expresses misgivings concerning the killing of any living being, saying, “My son, much money will come to us in this way; you seem to me, however, to take care to save the treasures of the king.” Whilst in both these narratives the sacrifice is meant to protect the king from threatening misfortune, in the Dhonasâkha Jâtaka the ambitious purohita helps the king through a sacrificial ceremony to acquire a city which is difficult to conquer. He proposes to his lord to pluck out the eyes of the thousand captured kings, rip up the bellies and take out the entrails and thus give a bali-offering to a tree god (III. 159 sq.).