The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s4.2

c2.s4.2

The hold that the priest obtained upon the king has been compared with that secured by the European priest in the Middle Ages. There is a great and essential difference. The Hindu priests had no strength of combination. They formed no union of political power parallel to, and capable of opposing itself as a whole against, the sovereignty of the throne. It is true that they formed an association, that they were an exclusive and distinct class. But they formed no corporate body, and had no head. They worked as individuals. Moreover, their power possessed no financial basis such as that of the Roman church. They drew no direct and constant property-contributions from the people. They were dependent on the king. From him they obtained largesses; from him, or rich members of his caste, they obtained their wealth of cattle and later of land: wealth that did not, however, go to swell a general fund, but enriched favored individuals. They lived on charity, and stood under armed patronage. Their very exclusiveness hindered their upgrowth; for had they with the religious tools familiar to them been able to ally themselves by marriage with the nobles, had the priests' daughters (for by their law celibacy was forbidden) wedded the priests' protectors, the religious order might by such family alliance have gained a thorough control of the state. As it chanced, mighty was the individual ministerial influence of certain priests, coercive as was the religious power they could wield, they still stood apart from the rulers, depending on those whom (it is only fair to say) they despised—a fragmentary class, that enforced respect as a whole through fear of the fate to come upon the king that denied their influence with the gods, but never a class that rose to be independent of that king in respect of support. Moreover, as matter of fact, most of the priests lived retired and quiet lives, content to beg for food, satisfied with a little rice, cows, and a hut, and without worldly ambition; regarded with love or awe by the common outside world, with honor by the nobles, and only occasionally, in the person of the king's private priest and advisers, interfering at all in the matters that concerned the warrior-caste.