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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
saciva of king Jiyasattu and also as amacca and maṁtil which shows that these three terms are somewhat indiscriminately used by our author. Kalidāsa also uses these terms almost as synonyms.2 It seems that during this age the prime-minister was called maha-marti,s while the other terms like amacca, saciva and maṁti simply denoted the other ministers of the State. The mahamamti has also been designated as mahā mātya in the various Caulukyan records. +
Purohita—The purohita or the royal-priest was mainly responsible for the religious, moral and cultural well-being of the State, and was instrumental in warding off natural and supernatural calamities (ašiva) by performing sacrifices and rituals. 5 The Thāņāṁga ( Abhayadeva's commentary, 7-558 ) defines purohita as śāntikarmakārin, i. e. one who performed rituals for the peace of the country. The Vivā gasuya. informs us that a sacrifice was performed by Mahesaradatta, the priest of king Jayaratha, to avert the king's misfortune. With the decline of the Vedic sacrifices by this time, his position, however, must have considerably deteriorated, and, as Altekar has pointed out, “the post-Gupta inscriptions usually distinguish him from ministers showing that he was no longer a member of the ministry.987 The śukraniti, however, places him at the head of the ministry, although it also states that in view of others he had no place in that body.. Here again Altekar has opined that "the śukranīti is probably following the older traditions rather than
1. NC. 3, p. 150. 2. Upadhyaya, op. cit., p. 127. 3. TSITH HEHE-NC. 3, p. 57. 4. Altekar, A.S., State and Government in Ancient India, p. 125. 5. NC. 2, p. 267; cf. Nitivā., p. 160. 6. P. 53. The Dhanasakha Jataka (III, No. 353, p. 159 ) also refers to an
ambitious purohita who helped the king by performing sacrificial rites for acquiring a city which was difficult to conquer. See
LAI., p. 58. 7. Altekar, op. cit., p. 121. 8. Sukraniti, II. 70-72.
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