Vedic priesthood

Vedic priesthood, the priests of the Vedic religion, were known as purohita. They are divided into several classes.

The four principal priestly classes or Rtvijas:#The Brahman, the most learned of them, was required to know the three Vedas, to supervise the sacrifice and to set right mistakes; at a later period his functions were based especially on the Atharvaveda.#The Hotar is the chief priest, presiding the sacrifice. He is associated with the Rigveda.#The Udgatar intones the hymns for the Hotar. He is associated with the Samaveda.#The Adhvaryu carries out the actual sacrifice (in particular an adhvara, a term for the Somayajna). He is associated with the Yajurveda. In mythology, he is presented as a newcomer, probably corresponding to a historical secondary development. The rising importance of the Adhvaryu probably coincided with the codification of the Yajurveda, linguistically corresponding to the samhita prose phase of Vedic Sanskrit of roughly 1000 BC. According to Monier-Williams, the Adhvaryu "had to measure the ground, to build the altar, to prepare the sacrificial vessels, to fetch wood and water, to light the fire, to bring the animal and immolate it"; whilst engaged in these duties, they had to repeat the hymns of the Yajur-veda, hence that Veda itself is also called AdhvaryuThe Atharvan was a special kind of priest involved with Soma and fire rituals. The word is from Indo-Iranian *athar not attested in Sanskrit but ātar is Avestan for fire. Later, the Atharvaveda was associated with a legendary rishi called Atharvan.

The division of the Agnihotra among the Hotar, the Udgatar and the Adhvaryu is directly comparable to the Celtic priesthood as reported by Strabo, with the Druids as high priests, the Bards doing the chanting and the Vates performing the actual sacrifice.

In Ancient Persia Atharvans were the highest, sacerdotal class similar to the Brahmanic caste. The Zoroastrian Avesta mentions three levels of Atharvans (Avestan āϑravaŋ). Parsis have corresponding levels in this tradition known as Dasturs (Pahlavi dastwar), Mobeds (Av. mōγu, magus), and then Ervads (Av. aeϑrapaiti).

See also

*Namboothiri

External links

*The Asylum of Sarabhanga