Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c4.t4.3

c4.t4.3

Fortunately for us, this 'formidable personage' of Ancient India, as Prof. Hopkins¹ has characterised him, has been subjected to a searching examination at the hands of eminent scholars. The institution of the purohita, being as old as the Vedic times, if not pre-Vedic, had naturally roused a lively interest in it, sufficient to engage the best talents of scholars to trace its origin and development. Readers are only directed to the eminent summary of these valuable researches given by the learned authors of the *Vedic Index*,² and as regards the Epic, to the masterly contribution of Prof. Hopkins on *The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India*.³ Our task, here, is to present the *Jātaka* evidence on the point which, though, has been more or less fully examined by that talented scholar, Richard Fick,⁴ whose inspiring lead has left us under a deep debt of gratitude.