History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.212

v6.c82.212

What Kauṭilya regards as reprehensible is extreme reliance on and pursuit of nakṣatra astrology, but it is not to be supposed that he ignored prognostications altogether. About the king's *purohita* (priest) he lays down the following⁷⁶⁰ 'the king should appoint as priest a person whose family and character are highly spoken of, who has well studied the Veda together with the six *aṅgas*, the divine and other portents and the science of the government of people and who can prevent divine and human calamities by means contained in the Atharvaveda, the king should follow him as a pupil does his teacher or a son his father or a servant his master'. Yāj (I. 313), who is later than Kauṭilya by some centuries, also lays down in almost identical words that 'the king should appoint as *purohita* one who is proficient in astrology, endowed with all requirements declared in śāstras, and is proficient in the science of government and the propitiatory and magic rites of the Atharvaveda'.