Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s11.1120

v1.c3.s11.1120

The king and the Kṣatriyas must have stood in a particularly close relation. The former being the Kṣatriya par excellence, it is to him rather than to the ordinary Kṣatriya that we must refer passages like that in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,³⁵ where it is said that the Kṣatriya, with the consent of the clansmen, gives a settlement to a man: clearly a parallel to the rule found among many peoples that the chief, but only with the consent of the people, can make a grant of unoccupied land. In the same Brāhmaṇa³⁶ it is said that a Kṣatriya consecrates a Kṣatriya, a clear reference, as the commentator explains, to the practice of the old king consecrating the prince (kumāra) who is to succeed him; and again,³⁷ the Kṣatriya and the Purohita are regarded as alone complete in contrast with other people, the parallel with the Purohita here suggesting that the Kṣatriya par excellence is meant. On the other hand, the king is sometimes contrasted with the Rājanya.³⁸