A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.19.2

c6.19.2

The other features of the Indian State were concerned with the position of the priestly and the ruling classes as well as of the king with reference to the rest. The Brāhmaṇas indeed occupy from the first a very important place in the society and the State. In the Brahmanical canon not only are the person and property of the priestly order protected by the severest penalties but they are armed with a formidable array of immunities which includes the exemption from taxation as well as from capital punishment ∗. To the same favoured order is assigned in the later works the right of filling the panel of judges in the royal court of justice in a partial measure as well as the highest seat in the council of ministers. Above all the Brāhmaṇa has the God-given right of spritual teaching and of guardianship of the Sacred Law which embraces every section of the community together with every act of their lives. The King's Chaplain (purohita), in particular, has not only the task of ministering to the spiritual needs of his master, but he also stands in the front rank of State officials, for to him belongs the function of warding off by means of his charms and spells the dangers threatening the safety of the king and the kingdom. It is remarkable that much of these ideas of the Brāhmaṇa's social and civic status is implicitly accepted in the systems lying outside the Brahmanical canon.