Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.90

v2.c4.90

⁴ Geldner, Vedische Studien, 2, 144, thinks that several Purohitas were possible, quoting Sāyaṇa, on Rv. x. 57, 1, who gives the tale of the Gaupāyanas and King Asamāti from the Śātyāyana-naka, and comparing the case of Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra as Purohitas, probably contemporaneously, of Sudās. But that the two were contemporaneous is most unlikely, especially if we adopt the very probable view of Hopkins (Journal of the American Oriental Society, 15, 260 et seq.) that Viśvāmitra was with the ten kings (Rv. vii. 18) when they unsuccessfully attacked Sudās. The other narrative has, as Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, 375, n. 3, observes, a markedly fictitious character; while every other passage that mentions a Purohita speaks of him in the singular, and as there was only one Brahman priest at the sacrifice, so the Purohita acted as Brahman.