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92
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SŪTRA
[Ch. III
courtesans played and danced all round; priests, generals, merchants and citizens, provincials-all thronged at the palace and made a holiday; the town was decorated on a heavenly style, the prince was placed on a pile of jewels, he was sprinkled from the couches and an umbrella with its festoons of gold was held over him".
Priest (Purohita)
In the BhS the priest (purohita) does not appear as the king's adviser in secular matters and occupy a position in the administration of the government like other high royal officials. But here a reference is made to the term "Balikari' which denotes a propitiator employed in the service of a royal family along with other palace staff-members, such as, Bhanda garini Ajjhadharini etc.
But one comes across the evidences in other Jaina texts that the priest held an important position as king's counsel in the royal court along with other high dignitaries of the state and was regarded as one of the jewels."
In the Vivaga Suya1 it is stated that a sacrifice was performed by Mahesaradatta, the priest of king Jiyasattu with a view to averting his misfortunes. Sometimes he was also employed as witch-doctor by the king to win victory in the war for which a sacrifice was performed by the said priest with the flesh of hearts of eight hundred captured boys belonging to the four classes, viz. Bambhana, Khattiya, Vaissa and Sudda.
1 Vide Life in Ancient India, by Dr. J. C. Jain, p. 54, 29 f. 2 BhS, 11, 11, 430. There is the mention of Asura Purohita (Bhs 3, 1, 135).
3 Sthananga Sutra-7, 558; Cf. Milindapanha, p. 114, which refers to "Senapati, purohita, akkhadassa, bhandagarika, chattagahaka, khaggagahaka as six important officers of the king." See Life in Ancient India by Dr. J. C. Jain., p. 58 4f. 4 Vivaga Suya 5, p. 33; The Dhonasakha Jataka (III No. 353. p. 159) "refers to an ambitious priest who helped the king with sacrificial ceremony to acquire a city which was difficult to conquer." So he proposed to his master "to pluck out the eyes of thousand captured kings, to rip up their bellies, and take out the entrails and offer an offering (bali) to a god." Life in Ancient India by Dr. J. C. Jain, p. 56 5f. See also Fick, op. cit. Ch. VII, "The House priest of the king."
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