[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925) › v1.c27.s7.13 # The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s7.13 The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s7.13 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c27.s7.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7.13) One priest alone seems to have been definitely attached to the king, and less often to other rich persons of the warrior or the agricultural and trading classes, Kṣatriya or Vaiçya. This was the Purohita, \*praepositus\*, who was charged with the general control of the offerings to be performed in households, which were large enough to maintain a considerable body of priests, and to hire others for special rites. As a rule there can only have been one Purohita who probably acted as long as he and the king were alive and on good terms: we hear, however, of changes of Purohita, as that of Viçvāmitra for Vasiṣṭha, with the result of the effort of the rejected rival to overthrow the king by bringing a coalition of ten princes against him,¹ and there is no Vedic evidence to show that the later practice, which made the priesthood hereditary in the family of the priest prevailed, though one Purohita in some cases at least evidently served more than one prince in succession, or even according to the later texts one man might be Purohita of as many as three allied kings at once.² In this case, however, we may imagine that there were subordinate Purohitas also employed. The relation of king and Purohita was created by a very formal act in which the precise words of the wedding service were repeated,³ and there is abundant evidence that the Purohita was in religion and civil affairs the \*alter ego\* of the king.⁴ The law books⁵ make him out to be the king’s teacher in sacred and other learning, his councillor in the performance of all his duties, the dispenser of justice in the place of the king, and prone to interfere in royal successions: popular tales represent the evil Purohita as bringing to ruin the kingdom as the good preserves it, and the Rigveda⁶ already makes the prosperity of the whole realm depend on him. It may be taken as certain that he performed all the domestic ritual of the king’s household, with its many formulae and magic rites⁷ to secure the success of the king’s undertakings in war and peace, the correctness of his judgements, and the prosperity of his subjects: we see clearly from the Rigveda⁸ that the Purohita was expected to be in the battle to secure victory, not by arms, but by the weapons of his magic power; the Atharvaveda⁹ preserves a battle spell used by a Purohita in fight, and the Rigveda¹⁰ tells how the Purohita Devāpi won rain by a spell. The Brāhmaṇas represent the gods defeated by the Asuras as rushing to Bṛhaspati, who is the divine Purohita, and asking him to devise a new rite to overcome the Asuras, which he very properly at once does. Moreover, in the address to Agni when he is invoked as having aforetime favoured the ancestor of the invoker, when a king is the sacrificer, the name of his Purohita’s ancestor is used in place of his own: the Purohita must take part in offerings made to undo errors of the king in his capacity as criminal judge,¹ and in the sacrifice of the horse certain libations must be offered, according to some authorities, in the house of the Purohita.² - [Previous: v1.c27.s7.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7.12) - [Next: v1.c27.s7.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7.14) - [Up: v1.c27.s7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7) ## Linked texts (14) - [Āpastambaśrautasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.srauta.apastamba.12.17.2) — Āpastamba, Sanskrit - [Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.kausitaki.28.5) — Kauṣītaki, Sanskrit - [Kātyāyanaśrautasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.srauta.katyayana.9.12.11) — Kātyāyana (Vājasaneyi sūtrakāra), Sanskrit - [Śāṅkhāyanaśrautasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.srauta.sankhayana.7.6.7) — Śāṅkhāyana, Sanskrit - [Taittirīyasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.krsnayajur*taittiriya.1.8.9) — Sanskrit - [Gobhilagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.gobhila.1.9.9) — Gobhila, Sanskrit - [Vasiṣṭhadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.vasistha.19.40) — Vasiṣṭha, Sanskrit - [Aitareyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.aitreya.8.27) — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg.1.1.1) — Sanskrit - [Śatapathabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.satapatha.4.1.4.5) — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit - [Jaiminīyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.jaiminiya) — Sanskrit - [Āśvalāyanaśrautasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.srauta.asvalayana) — Āśvalāyana, Sanskrit - [Pañcaviṃśabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.pancavimsa) — Sanskrit - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c27.s7.13) · Pramāṇa