Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 42.djvu/73

 INTRODUCTION. Ixix

��above all, in this, that they have in charge, each in his own way, the general interests of their noble employers, whereas other priests are likely ordinarily to have had only subordinate charges, because of the technical charac- ter of their knowledge and occupation. RV. X, 71, 11 expresses clearly the existence of broader theological in- terests than the mere knowledge of the recitation and chanting of hymns and the mechanical service of the sacrifice (hotar, udgatar, and adhvaryu). This is the Brah- manship which later forks into two directions, on one side the general knowledge of the procedures at the sacrifice (the Brahman as fourth priest), and the theological specula- tions attaching (brahmavadin) ; on the other, the higher theosophy which leads ultimately to the brahmavidya of the Upanishads. It is natural that a divine thus qualified should at a very early time assume permanent and con- fidential relations to the noble ra^anya in all matters that concerned his religious and sacrificial interests. His func- tions are those of chaplain and high-priest. It seems unlikely that this Brahman was in all cases, too, competent to attend to those more secular and practical needs of the king connected with the security of his kingdom, the fealty of his people, and the suppression of his enemies. These activities, ra^akarma/n, as the Atharvan writings call them, must have called for different training and different talents — they represent rather the functions of a chancellor, or prime-minister, than those of a chaplain — and there is no warrant to assume that every Brahman possessed these necessary qualifications in addition to his expertness in systematic theology. On the other hand, conversely, there must have been purohitas incapable of assuming the charge of their employers' interests on the occasion of the more elaborate Vedic performances (jrauta), unless we conceive that in such cases the Brahman was a mere figure-head and his office a sinecure.

And yet precisely here is to be found the measure of truth which we may suspect in the Atharvanist claim that the supervising Brahman shall be an adherent of the AV. In many cases the tribal king, or ra^a, might have had but

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