The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.18

c6.s3.18

Thus we can understand that "the food of the king takes away the brahmin's lustre (*tejas*),'' while the same goes for the royal gifts.⁶⁴ Service with a king is even ruled out for the proper brahmin. For the learned brahmin, the king is as great an abomination as ten brothels or even as the keeper of ten thousand slaughter houses.⁶⁵ It is not surprising, then, that the purohita's position is highly ambiguous. He precedes the king but the brahminical texts often evince contempt for him.⁶⁶ It is interesting that the epic, dealing with various types of brahmins according to their occupations, does not consider the sacrificial officiant (*ṛtvij*) and the purohita real brahmins (*vikarmastha*); they are equal to kṣatriyas (*kṣatrasama*).⁶⁷ Also Manu 12. 46 brackets the purohita together with the king and the kṣatriya and with those who engage in verbal contests (*vādayuddhāpradhānāḥ*).⁶⁸ That is, the purohita cannot be a proper brahmin because he is stuck in the sphere of antithetical relations where he has to exchange his purity for the impurity of his patron.