Satapatha Bramhana Part 03

SR No.: 007679
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2382
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 535

lxviii
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
a good old age, if a Brâhmana, imbued with this knowledge, is his purohita, the shepherd of his kingdom. The subjects of such a king are loyal and obedient (VIII, 25, 2. 3). The prescriptions regarding the purohita are followed (VIII, 25) by a magic rite, called brahmanah parimâra, designed to kill hostile kings, which might have found a place in the ritual of the Atharvan'. In later texts, as a matter of fact, the rule is laid down formally that the purohita should be an Atharvavedin. Thus in Gaut. XI, 15. 17; Yâgñav. I, 312 (cf. also Manu XI, 33); see p. xlviii, above. Sâyana in the Introduction to the AV., pp. 5, 6, claims outright that the office of purohita belongs to the Atharvanists (paurohityam ka atharvavidai-va kâryam), and he is able to cite in support of his claim not only the rather hysterical dicta of the Atharvan writings, but also slokas from a number of Puranas, the Nîtisâstra, &c.; cf. above, p. Ivi 2. In the Dasakumâra-karita magic rites, as well as the marriage ceremony, are in fact performed at the court of a king with Atharvan rites. âtharvanena (âtharvanikena) vidhinâ, and the statement is the more valuable as it is incidental; see above, p. lv.
I do not desire to enter here upon a discussion of the question of the original relation between the purohita and the brahman, whose identity is baldly assumed in many passages of the earlier Hindu literature 3. I believe that they were not originally the same, but that they were bound together by certain specific ties. They are similar,
Cf. the battle-charm, AV. III, 19: the purohita figures in it as well as in the accompanying performances, Kaus. 14, 22-23 (Dârila). And RV. IV, 50, 7-9, perhaps earlier, shows the brihaspati (purohita) in essentially the same important relation to the king.
2 Cf. Deva at Kâty. Sr. XV, 7, 11, purohito yo s tharvavedavihitânâm sântikapaushrikâbhikârakarmanâm kartâ.
' Cf. Max Müller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 485 ff.; Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 31 ff.; Râgasûya, p. 23, note; Haug, Brahma und die Brahmanen, p. 9 ff.; Geldner, Vedische Studien, II, 144 ff.; Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 374, 395 ff. Sâyana at RV. VII, 33, 14 equates purohita and brahman, and Ait. Br. VII, 16, I exhibits Vasishtha, the typical purohita, in the office of brahman at a srauta-rite. At RV. IV, 50, 7 ff. the activity of a purohita is sketched: the purohita, however, is called brihaspati (-brahman).
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