[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897) › c13 # The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c13: Chapter VII. The House Priest of the King The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c13 - **Language:** English ### Chapter VII. The House Priest of the King ### [c13.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.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 ### [c13.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.3) ¹ Cf. on this: Weber, \*Indische Studien\*, Vol. 10, p. 30 sq., Pischel and Geldner, \*Vedische Studien\*, Vol. 2, N. 1, p. 143 sq., Pischel in the \*Göttingische gelehrte Anzeige\*, 1894. Vol. 1, p. 420 sq. Oldenberg, \*Religion des Veda\*, p. 372 sq. For the epics, cf. Hopkins, \*Ruling Caste\*, p. 151 sq. ### [c13.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.4) Even in the pre-Vedic times, intercourse with the gods was not permitted to everybody, but it required the intervention of "a certain person with special knowledge and special magical powers."² This privilege, this claim, based upon wisdom and supernatural powers, to be alone in communication with the world of demons and gods and to exercise influence upon it through sacrifice and magic, led to the institution of the office of a priest, an exclusive priest class, who through this privilege exercised a preponderating influence upon other classes of the population and even upon the ruling class. It is precisely the latter class which required the help of the priest, either in injuring its enemies or for protection against threatening evil. ### [c13.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.5) ² Oldenberg, \*Religion des Veda\*, p. 372. ### [c13.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.6) Even the Khattiyas of the east, however much they may have excelled the Brâhmaṇas in wealth and power, felt themselves standing on the same level with them in spiritual matters and were in this one point compelled to give the priests a power over themselves, not indeed the Brâhmaṇa caste as such, for this had become through its worldliness something different in Buddha’s time from what it claimed to be according to its own literature and what in fact it might originally have been, but individual representatives of this caste, and principally, the house priest, the purohita. ### [c13.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.7) ¹ From the later Sanskrit literature a passage of the Raghuvamśa (XI. 58 sq.) should here be quoted, where King Dasaratha, frightened by hostile wind and other strange natural phenomena, goes to his guru, the purohita Vasiṣṭha, for advice ; the latter removes his anxiety by explaining them as good signs. It is characteristic of the view which the poet has of the relation between the king and the purohita that the expression krityavit is used, by which Kâlidâsa wants to say that the king knew how he was to behave in such cases, that he chose the only right and possible way of escaping the threatening danger when he sought the help of his priestly counsellor. ### [c13.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.8) The proposition of the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (VIII. 24), that every king who wants to perform a sacrifice, must have a purohita, as otherwise the gods will not accept his offering, also held good in eastern lands, so long at any rate as sacrifice was held in esteem. A king without a purohita was even here inconceivable, before Buddhism called in question the efficacy of sacrifice and magical chantings. Not being himself in a position—just because he lacks supernatural powers, the exclusive right of the priestly class—to propitiate the gods and demons, nor knowing the means by which the future could not only be known but made to favour him, he took recourse to the magician priest for influencing the transcendental world, to the Indian Shaman. In executing his commission, the purohita must perform the sacrifice, along with Brâhmaṇas who act under him, in order to drive away the misfortune which accrues to the king through bad dreams (in the Mahâsaripa Jâtaka, I. 334 sq.), or through sinister moaning (in the Lohakumbhi Jâtaka, III. 43 sq.) ; if inexplicable natural phenomena, such as the flashing of the weapons, cause anxiety to the king, the purohita refers them to the constellation of the stars; arms and animals which the king uses, must be consecrated by magic formulæ (for example, the state elephants through \*hattisutta\*, II. 46), so that their use may bring luck. If, however, all this was the business of the \*purohita\*, then the destiny of the king was placed in his hands : it lay with him whether the favour of the gods was to be invoked on behalf of the king, his sacrificial lord; it was in his power to do the opposite; to him the king must come if he wanted to know beforehand the result of any undertaking by means of any sign or constellation of stars; especially, when he did not trust himself to answer the question whether he had any chance of conquering his enemies in war or thought it necessary to seek the help of the gods.¹ This position of the \*purohita\* with respect to the king led necessarily to an extremely intimate personal relation between the two; under circumstances there might arise—when the king was weak and the \*purohita\* possessed great energy—a temporal power of the latter who as a matter of fact had originally nothing to do with administration. For both of these our text gives us instances. ### [c13.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.9) ¹ \*Cf.\* Weber, \*Ind. Stud.\*, Vol. 10, p. 31 : "If a king wants to defeat the army of an enemy, he must go to a Brâhmaṇa for help. If he gives his consent, he consecrates the war-chariot of the king with all sorts of incantations and thus helps him on to victory : so also when a king is banished." Ait. Br., VIII. 10; Vs. XI. 81. ### [c13.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.10) The three priests who are considered specially holy in the epics, the \*guru\*, who has taught the king in his youth, the sacrificial priest and the house priest¹ appear, according to the Jâtakas, to be united in the person of the purohita. He is the teacher, the guru, or, as usually said in our text, the ácariya of the king and is mentioned as such by the latter. “Give it to the ácariya ”--with these words the king presents a costly carriage through his retinue to the purohita (II. 376). When the king, as narrated in the Sarabhaṅga Jâtaka, hears the purohita knock at the door with his nails, he asks, “Who is there,” and at the answer, “It is I, O king, the purohita,” opens the door and says, “Come in, my teacher” (ácariya, IV. 270). Also in the passage already mentioned of the Sarabhaṅga Jâtaka (V. 127), the king calls him several times ácariya. In answer to the purohita’s question whether he had a good sleep, he replies: “How could I sleep well, my teacher, when the weapons flashed to-day all over the palace.” The priest soothes his anxiety as he points to the birth of his son as the cause of this phenomenon. “What, however, my teacher, will happen to a boy born under such circumstances?” “Nothing, O great king, he will become the best archer in the whole of India." "Good, my teacher, then educate him well and when he is grown up, present him to me." ### [c13.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.11) ¹ The three personalities do not appear even in the epics always sharply distinguished : Cf. Hopkins, Ruling Caste, p. 155. ### [c13.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.12) ¹ That in this passage the Vedas are necessarily to be understood by mante, I won't maintain; magical incantations may also be meant here, a knowledge of which the king, as appears from other passages, had at heart. Of such magical incantations learnt by a Khattiya, there are mentioned in the Jātakas: the magical incantations with the help of which one conquers the earth (\*pathavījayamanta\*, II. 243), the magic by which one can understand all tongues, even the tongues of animals (\*sabbarâvajânanamanta\*, III. 145), the magical incantation which helps to bring into view concealed treasures (\*niddhiuddharaṇamanta\*, III. 116). ### [c13.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.13) Often the \*purohita\* is the teacher and guide of the king in his youthful days; in the Tillamuṭṭhi Jātaka we read that the king makes the teacher who has taught him in Takkasilâ his \*purohita\* and looks upon him as if he was his father and follows his advice (II. 282). Still the \*purohita\* probably got the title of \*ācariya\*, not from his capacity as teacher of the prince; he rather figured, even after his pupil had ascended the throne, still as his teacher, for a king did not apparently consider his spiritual education over with the termination of his studies and let himself be taught further by his \*purohita\* and given instruction in the Vedas (Bârâṇasirâjâ puro hittassa santike mante gaṇhâti \[P. 111.\] III. 28). ### [c13.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.14) This position as teacher made the \*purohita\* in many cases the fatherly friend and adviser of the king. What served to raise and consolidate the position of trust which the \*purohita\* held in the king's Court, was the circumstance that his office was ordinarily hereditary (I. 437; II. 47; III. 392, 455; \*purohitakula\*, IV. 200) and held by the same family for generations together. This circumstance further helped to bind the priest's family firmly with the ruling house. "For seven generations, the performance of elephant consecration (\*hatthimangala\*) has been hereditary in our family,"—so complains in the Susîma Jâtaka (II. 47) the mother of the young son of the \*purohita\* whose holding this lucrative post the Brâhmaṇas dispute on the ground of his youth and ignorance of the Vedas and of the elephant book (\*hatthisutta\*)—"the old custom will pass out of our hands and our wealth will disappear." Sometimes, in consequence of this hereditary character of the office of the \*purohita\*, friendly relations existed betwen the king and the latter from early youth. The son of the \*purohita\* born on the same day as the king's son grows up with the prince; they wear the same clothes and eat and drink together; when they are grown up, they go together for study to Takkasilâ (III. 31). This friendly relationship continues even after the prince is given the uparajja after his return from the University. They continue to share the same food, drink and bed, and a strong mutual trust subsists between them, and as the prince, after the death of his father, ascends the throne, he wishes to give the post of purohita to his friend. It is true that in this case the purohita's son prefers the homeless life, still it is narrated to us in the Susîma Jâtaka (III. 392) that directly on the commencement of the young prince's reign, the purohita's son steps into his father's office. ### [c13.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.15) Thus intimately associated from youth onward, the purohita and the king remain also in later years inseparable companions. We meet them together in a game at dice (in the Aṇḍabhûta Jâtaka, I. 289); we see the purohita on festive occasions on the back of an elephant behind the king, who is seated upon its shoulder. The king bestows honour and riches upon him; of such favours we find repeated mention: thus, for example, we meet with the gift of a carriage (in the Kurudhamma Jâtaka, II. 376), of a village (in the Nânacchanda Jâtaka, II. 429). The last seems generally to be the source of livelihood of the purohita, for we read pretty often (III. 105, IV. 475) that he goes to his bhogagâma, that is, to the village from which he collects his rents. ### [c13.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.16) As he shares the fortunes of the king, so also he shares the misfortune of his lord. When fleeing at night from an invaded town, the robbed king takes with him, besides the queen and a servant, only the \*purohita\* (III. 417). As he, as explained in the Padakusala-Mâṇava Jâtaka (III. 513 sq.), has plundered the land along with the king, he is killed, along with the latter, by the enraged populace. ### [c13.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.17) But the \*purohita\* is not only the fatherly adviser, the friend and inseparable companion; he appears sometimes as an officer of a purely temporal character. Mention has already been made of his participation in the administration of justice; the Kiṃchanda Jâtaka describes to us a slandering, corrupt \*purohita\* who when sitting in Court makes unjust judgments (\*kūṭavinicchayiko ahosi\* V. 1). In better light the Dhammadhaja Jâtaka (II. 186sq.) shows the judicial work of the royal house priest. Here it is narrated how a man who is defeated in a lawsuit through the adverse judgment of a corrupt \*senâpati\* leaves the Court, wringing his hands and weeping and meets the \*purohita\*, as he proceeds to do the king's work. He falls prostrate before him and complains that he has lost his case: "Whilst people like you, my lord, advise the king in worldly and spiritual things the \*senâpati\* takes bribes and robs the rightful owner of his property.” The purohita feels sympathy for him and says to him, “Come, I will decide your case”; they go to the Court together where there is a great crowd assembled. The purohita reverses the judgment (\*aṭṭam paṭivinicchinitvā\*, II. 187) and helps the rightful owner to get his own property. The crowd praised him loudly, so that a great noise arose. The king heard this and asked what the matter was. “O king, the wise Dhammadhaja has set right a wrong judgment and hence this shout of praise.” The king was pleased and asked the purohita: “People say, my teacher, you have decided a lawsuit; is it true?” “Yes, O Great King, I have set right a thing wrongly judged by the \*senāpati\*.” “Then you shall from to-day try lawsuits; that will bring pleasure to my ears and prosperity to the world.” ### [c13.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.18) That guarding the king’s treasures was part of his duties, we learn from the Bandhanamokkha Jātaka, where the priest who has fallen into disgrace and whom the king’s people want to take to the place of execution, prays that he may be brought before the king, “for”—so runs his prayer—“I am an officer of the king (\*aham rājakammiko\*, I. 439) and have rendered him much service and I know where great treasures are hidden. The treasures of the king, I have guarded; if you don't take me to the king, much wealth will be lost." ### [c13.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.19) Still all \*purohitas\* were obviously not content with the occasional care of state affairs; greediness and love of power would often lead them to use the influence which they had over the decisions of a weak and superstitious king in securing worldly prosperity. If an ambitious priest was in possession of complete mastery over the king's will, it was quite in the nature of things that he gave his thoughts to the acquisition of the highest position of power in the Court, that he tried to become the leader of the king in worldly and spiritual matters (\*atthadhammánusásaka\*, V. 57) and as such, to take into his hands the whole direction of state affairs. If, as often happens, a minister or one of the remaining Brâhmaṇas has obtained that which is the highest aim of ambitious courtiers, in case the \*purohita\* is himself free from worldly cares, the latter is selected beforehand for the office of \*atthadhammánusásaka\*. Not content with this, many \*purohitas\* aimed at something higher and tried to combine in themselves the office of the house priest of several kingdoms. Examples of this nature are found very often in Sanskrit literature; thus, in the Śatapatha Brâhmaṇa (II. 4, 4, 5), it is said of Devabhâga Śrautarsha that he was the purohita of two kingdoms,¹ namely, those of the Kurus and the Sṛiñjayas. Such a purohita may have served as a model for the hard and cruel Piṅgiya mentioned in the Dhonasâkha Jâtaka. "I will"—so he thinks in his desire for fame—"make this king conquer all other kings in the whole of India; in this way he will become the sole king and I the sole house priest (ekapurohita, III. 159.)" ### [c13.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.20) ¹ Weber, Indische Studien, Vol, 10, p. 34. ### [c13.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.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.). ### [c13.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.22) ¹ The question here is of a sabbaçatukkayañña, that is, a complete foarfold sacrifice, consisting of four elephants, four horses, four bulls, four men and four samples of other creatures, quails, etc. ### [c13.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.23) Just as the sacrifice, so also other magical performances the \*purohita\* did for his own enrichment and worldly prosperity. The consecration of State elephants brought the \*purohita\*, according to the Susîma Jâtaka, always ten millions (\*koṭi\* II. 46), as all implements for consecration and the entire jewellery of the elephants fell to the lot of the performer of the \*hatthimaṅgala\*. That he made use of his skill to read the signs of the future to promote his own interest, was only too obvious; to make a king subservient to his will, he used to read out of the signs only that which conformed to his wishes. In the well-known story of King Sufferlong and his son Livelong¹ the \*purohita’s\* reading of the signs plays a rôle which can properly be called by no other name than cheating, though it is not employed for a bad purpose. The Kosala king Dîghîti “Sufferlong” is defeated by his neighbour, King Brahmadatta, and driven out of his kingdom. Along with the queen he wanders from place to place and comes at last to Benares, the seat of his enemy Brahmadatta, where he remains in hiding in the house of a potter, dressed as a begging ascetic. Not long after his wife becomes pregnant; she gets the desires which pregnancy creates and wishes to see at sunrise a four-limbed¹ army ready for fight, in full equipment and standing upon a ground which promises luck and to drink the water in which the swords have been washed. She narrates this to Dîghîti and explains to him that as he in his poverty cannot fulfil such an extravagant desire of hers she will die, since she cannot see her desire fulfilled. Now the purohita of King Brahmadatta is a friend of Dîghîti; to him goes the Kosala king and explains in what difficulty he finds himself placed. "Let me see the queen," replies the purohita, and as he sees the queen, he cries out "Verily, a Kosala king resides in your womb! Rest assured, at sunrise you will see a four-limbed army ready for fight, in full equipment and standing upon a ground promising luck, and you will get the water in which the swords are washed to drink." He goes to Brahmadatta and says to him, "O king, the signs (nimittâni) demand that there should be to-morrow at sunrise a four-limbed army ready for fight, in full equipment and standing on a lucky ground and that the arms should be washed." The Kâsi king orders his people to satisfy the purohita's requirements. ### [c13.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.24) ¹ This is found in the Mahâvagga of the Vinaya Piṭaka (ed. Oldenberg, Vol. I, p. 342 sq.). The conclusion of the narrative is also contained in the Jâtaka collection, namely, in the Dîghîtakosala Jâtaka (VII. 211 sq.). ### [c13.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.25) ¹ Caturanginî senâ, i.e., an army consisting of elephants, horses, chariots and infantry. ### [c13.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.26) Thus the desire of the queen in her pregnant condition is fulfilled through the deceit practised by the \*purohita\*. ### [c13.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.27) The activity of the \*purohitas\* who did not live in the king's Court but in the country seems really to be confined to magic, reading of signs and similar things. Here they stood with regard to the representatives of the king probably in a relationship similar to that of the house priest to the king. They, however, lacked all opportunity to develop any political capacity. These \*purohitas\* who were not in the service of the king are¹ also mentioned in Brahmanical literature, though rarely; still a verse of the Daśa-brâhmaṇa Jâtaka (IV. 364) refers to them and describes their work in these words:— ### [c13.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.28) ¹ On the \*purohita\* in a wider sense, cf. Oldenberg, \*Religion des Veda\* p. 374 sq. ### [c13.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13.29) "Food brought from a distance some \*purohitas\* in the villages eat, many people ask them (the meaning of star constellations, etc.), they castrate animals, (happy) signs they read. "Also (in the houses of these \*purohitas\*) there are slaughtered sheep, buffaloes, swine and goats. They are slaughterers, O great king, and yet they call themselves Brâhmaṇas." ## Linked texts (6) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.76) — Pāli - [Aitareyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.aitreya.8.24) — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit - [Mahāvagga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp.khandhaka.mahavagga.10.2.2.16) — Pāli - [Raghuvaṃśa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.rama.raghuvamsa.11.58) — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit - [Vājasaneyisaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.suklayajur*vajasaneyi.11.81) — Sanskrit - [Śatapathabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.satapatha.2.4.4) — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.fick-1897.c13) · Pramāṇa