The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c9.s10.1

c9.s10.1

The terms about gods and kings or rather the contexts in which the gods and kings are brought together in Vedic literature have been the source of much trouble in indology. Very often scholars are led to interpret certain passages from the *Rig Veda*, *Atharva Veda*, *Taittirīya Samhitā*, the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* etc. in such a way as to ascribe kingship to divine origin or base the king's authority upon his divinity.³⁵ Many of these texts should mean, in reality, exactly the opposite, namely, that divinity itself comes from kingship.