Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 796

xi
SATAPATHA-BRÂHMANA.
handed down as precious heirlooms in the several families, and were gradually enriched by the poetical genius of succeeding generations, the ceremonial became more and more complicated, so as at last to necessitate the distribution of the sacerdotal functions among several dictinct classes of priests. Such a distribution of sacrificial duties must have taken place before the close of the period of the hymns, and there can be little doubt that at that time the position of the priesthood in the community was that of a regular profession, and even, to some exter one! A post of peculiar importance, which seems to go back to a very early time, was that of the Purohita (literally
praepositus), or family priest to chiefs and kings. From the comparatively modest position of a private chaplain, who had to attend to the sacrificial obligations of his master, he appears to have gradually raised himself to the dignity of, so to say, a minister of public worship and confidential adviser of the king. It is obvious that such a post was singularly favourable to the designs of a crafty and ambitious priest, and must have offered him exceptional opportunities for promoting the hierarchical aspirations of the priesthood,
In the Rig-veda there is, with the single exception of the Purusha-sakta, no clear indication of the existence of caste in the proper, Brahmanical sense of the word. That institution, we may assume, was only introduced after the Brahmans had finally established their claims to the highest
See J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, I, p. 239 seq. * See Max Müller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485 seq.; A. Weber, Indische Studien, X, 31 seq. In Rig-veda IV, 50, 8, Vamadeva is made to say, 'That king alone, with whom the Brahman walks in front (purva eti), lives well-established in his house ; for him there is ever abundance of food; before him the people bow of their own accord.' If Grassmann was right in excluding verses 7-11 as a later addition, as I have no doubt he was (at least with regard to verses 7-9), these verses would furnish a good illustration of the gradually increasing importance of the office of Purohita. Professor Ludwig seems to take the verses 7-11 as forming a separate hymn; but I doubt not that he, too, must consider them on linguistic grounds, if on no other, as considerably later than the first six verses. The fact that the last pada of the sixth verse occurs again as the closing formula of the hymns V, 55; VIII, 40; and X, 121 (though also in VIII, 48, 13, where it is followed by two more verses) seems to favour this view.
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