Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c37.22

c37.22

dom or *Vanapatis*.¹ Owing to the connexion of the Brahmins with the sacrificial Soma the deity Soma was considered to be their special deity. Here the king is consecrated as king of the whole people including the Brahmins, and the priest expresses this by calling him Soma.² The sacerdotalist author of the Śatapatha, however, gives a questionable explanation of the closing sentence in the Vedic text above quoted. He says that it means that Soma and not the king was the king of the Brahmins. This is inconsistent with the existence of the indicative 'this,' '*esha*' in the text, the naming of the people or nation and the homage when the Brahmin resigns his privilege in the person of the king.³ The Śatapatha marks the last stage of the Brāhmaṇa period and it seems that the Priest-Brahmins about that time began to assert a claim of freedom from taxes. The Śatapatha explains that the meaning of the exception is that the king is to receive his sustenance from all others except the Brahmin.³ In the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, however, the Brahmin is fully subordinate to the king⁴, and so he appears to be in the Jātakas. The Vājasaneyi-Brāhmaṇa Upanishad which belongs to the school of the Śatapatha places the Brahmin under the king. (तस्मात् क्षत्रात्परं नास्ति तस्माद्ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियमधस्तादुपास्ते राजसूये 'Hence there is none above 'the Ruler, hence Brahmin sits under Kshatriya in Rājasūya' (IV. 11.). The Taittirīya school does not accept the interpretation of the Śatapatha. Bhaṭṭa Bhāskara explains the Vedic text as denoting that as a Brahmin must never be without a king, he is supposed to be under Soma for the period before a king is consecrated, and after the king is consecrated, the king becomes his king also (अस्माकं ब्राह्मणानां सोमो राजा, अधुना अयंचेति। सर्वदा सरजका वयं इत्यभिप्रायः। Taittirīya Veda, Mysore, III. pp. 157-8). The Aitareya implies that he becomes the Protector of Brahmins and Protector of Law (VIII. 12).