The Divinity of Kings

THE ORIGINAL human manusyadeva, in India is the priest, or according to some texts, the scholarly priest; for one may be born to the caste and yet, if not initiated into it and later instructed in the sacred learning, one will not be a real priest and not entitled to priestly distinction. But such a restriction as this is ignored in the older Veda, where gods are very simply divided into two classes, invisible and visible, the latter being Brahmans (TS. 1. 7. 3. 1). The epic steers a middle course and says that any (Brahman) priest is a god, but when he is wise and learned he is more of a god , cavidvn brdhmacio devah vidvan bhftyastaro devah. In either case he is still a Ji he is born to it and only one born divine, so to speak, is at this period a priest. Kingship on the other hand is an attribute which may be bestowed on a member of other than the warrior-caste and in any case a king becomes divine only by virtue of a religious ritual, in which the mere man by consecration and baptism at inauguration assumes a divine nature. The war-god Indra is the natural prototype of the warrior-king and a verse in the earliest Veda addressed to Indra is in the later Atharva transferred to the king. Following this lead, the priestly ritual literature identifies the king with several divinities. Whatever his parentage (that is, of whatever caste), the king rules as divine; he and the priest together uphold the moral order. The R. g-Veda recognized a king as a demigod, ardhadeva, but even then apparently only when he was a conqueror. The next period, a few centuries later, identifies every properly inaugurated king, by virtue of his mystic consecration, with the great gods. He is anointed with the glory of the Fire-god, with the radiance of the Sun-god, with the power of Indra . It is the gods that confer upon him radiance, power, and might. The radiance, varceas, is united with the fiery energy, haras, which the Father of gods conferred upon Indra and is symbolized by a gold crown. The king only by

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