Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t4.22

c4.t4.22

Looking now to the varied functions of the purohita we at once notice that he is the spiritual and temporal adviser of the king—atthadhammānusāsako.⁸ The latter is never different from the purohita as Fick⁹ seems to make out. We have clear references to show that the office of the purohita meant that of the 'spiritual and temporal adviser' of the king. "Sucirato nāma Brāhmaṇo Purohito Atthadhammānusāsako ahosi," so begins a Jātaka.¹⁰ Similarly another 'born in the purohita kula' became purohita, and therefore the spiritual and temporal adviser of the king.¹¹