A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.23

c7.23

It appears from the above that the king's divinity is derived from a twofold title—as a member of the ruling class, and as a participator in the omnipotent sacrificial ceremonies. As the Śat. Br. remarks in a passage purporting to explain one of the component rites of the Rājasūya, "The sacrificer is Indra;—he is Indra for a twofold reason, namely because he is a Kṣatriya and because he is a sacrificer".[^section] It deserves, however, to be specially remarked that the king was not alone in being ranked as a god. The passages just cited show that like him the Brāhmaṇa was habitually regarded as a god. Indeed the status of divinity was not the exclusive privilege of a single individual, or even of a single class. It was held to belong to all persons entitled to the performance of