Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/547

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management and care of horses and chariots [Manu, X. § 47). Clearly then we are dealing with one and the same caste, yet it holds widely different positions. It is below the Sudra apparently, but occupies posts very close to the King and not by any means menial ones. We can hardly say that its repre- sentation on the Council was any concession to democratic principle.

Next we come to the functions of the Royal Priest (Ch. III.), and the " Principal State Officials " (VII.) should logically follow it. The questions raised in Ch. VII. are complex.^ The State bureaucracy was built up of eighteen iirthas or " elements of the State " ; but in many of their names differences of inter- pretation arise. One term [samgrahltr) may mean " charioteer " or " treasurer." Another [govikartana) " huntsman " or " slayer of cows " ! It can hardly be a mere coincidence that at a King's installation [vdjapeya) four principal victims and eighteen sub- sidiary ones are offered, the latter including a spotted barren cow sacrificed to the Maruts as representing the earth — " piebald with vegetation" for the peasants. The peasants may be represented by the Vaisya-gramanl tlrthas. Dimly the functions ascribed to certain tlrthas suggest comparisons with the guild organiza- tions for military purposes which were so striking a feature of Turkish polity. Thus the Taksa-Rathakarau seem to have been classed by some writers as a tlrtha, and Mr. Law writes :— " Of the Taksan and Ratha-kara, the Taksan (carpenter) had perhaps to do all those works in wood that did not fall within the range of duties of the Ratha-kara. The latter officer was in special charge of the construction of chariots, which played a principal part in the wars of those days." The Taksans and

1 Cf. Evliya, Travels, trans, by J. von Hammer, ii. pt. i. pp. 104 ff. More relevant is the discussion of the eighteen elements of the State in The Antiquities of Chamba by Dr. J. Ph. Vogel (Archaeological Survey of India), i. pp. 120 ff. The titles there given differ entirely from those reproduced by Mr. Law, but they offer just as many difficulties of interpretation. Some of them certainly refer to military bodies, to militia, or industrial groups liable to be mobilized for military purposes. Such were the hasty asostra-bala-vydprtaka, or " those occupied with elephants, horses, camels and the forces," the " four arms " represented by pieces in the game of chess, p. 124.