Not to Worry, Vasiṣṭha Will Sort It Out: The Role of the Purohita in the Raghuvaṃśa

Abstract

It is my greatest pleasure to dedicate this paper to Professor Alexis Sanderson, whose guidance I was fortunate to have during my doctoral studies at the University of Oxford. I couldn’t have wished for a better supervisor. His formidable knowledge of the intellectual history of early-mediaeval India has been both overwhelming and inspiring right from the first lectures I attended. The reason why I hold that without the sound skills of philology it is pointless to undertake the study of the past is to a large extent thanks to the mastery he has shown in using those skills. The breadth of his learning and his keen interest in diverse aspects of classical Indian culture prevented me from ever feeling uncomfortable for not doing research on Śaivism, hismain field, but persisting in studying kāvya. Our tutorials had a formative influence on my scholarship; they were always stimulating and eminently enjoyable. I am grateful to have had the good fortune of being his student. Recounting the deeds of several kings of a royal lineage, Kālidāsa’s epic does not describe a single hero’s rise to success (abhyudaya). One could regard with Bonisoli-Alquati (2008, 105) the dynasty itself as the protagonist of the Raghuvaṃśa. There is one character, however, whose timely interventions help the continuance of the dynasty throughout the whole epic: this character is Vasiṣṭha, the royal chaplain, purohita. But how is it possible that Vasiṣṭha was thepurohita and guruof the Sūryavaṃśa for somanygenerations? Is it the same Vasiṣṭha? A legend in theTaittirīyaSaṃhitā tells us that among the sages itwasVasiṣṭha alone who could see Indra. The god taught him the Stomabhāgas with the charge that any kingwhohadhimas purohitawould thereby flourish if Vasiṣṭha didnot tell the Stomabhāgas to other sages. “Therefore—teaches the text—one should have a descendant of Vasiṣṭha (aVāsiṣṭha) as one’s brahmanpriest.”1 The