efers no
doubt only to the cult of the Royal God and the office of court
chaplain, called Purohita, Guru or Hotri, of whom there were at least
two.

The outline of this narrative, that a learned Brahman was imported and
charged with the instruction of the royal chaplain, is simple and
probable but the details are perplexing. The Sanskrit treatises
mentioned are unknown and the names singular. Janapada as the name of
a definite locality is also strange,[288] but it is conceivable that
the word may have been used in Khmer as a designation of India or a
part of it.

The inscription goes on to relate the gratifying history of the
priestly family, the grants of land made to them, the honours they
received. We gather that it was usual for an estate to be given to a
priest with the right to claim forced labour from the population. He
then proceeded to erect a town or village embellished with temples and
tanks. The hold of Brahmanism on the country probably depended more on
such priestly towns than on the convictions of the people. The
inscriptions often speak of religious establishments being restored
and sometimes say that they had become deserted and overgrown. We may
conclude that if the Brahman lords of a village ceased for any reason
to give it their attention, the labour and contributions requisite for
the upkeep of the temples were not forthcoming and the jungle was
allowed to grow over the buildings.

Numerous inscriptions testify to the grandeur of the Sivakaivalya
family. The monotonous lists of their properties and slaves, of the
statues erected in their honour and the number of parasols borne
before them show that their position was almost regal, even when the
king was a Buddhist. They prudently refrained from attempting to
occupy the throne, but probably no king could succeed unless
consecrated by them. Sadasiva, Sankarapandita and Divakarapandita
formed an ecclesiastical dynasty from about 1000 to 1100 A.D. parallel
to the long reigns of the kings in the same period.[289] The
last-named mentions in an inscription that he had consecrated three
kings and Sankarapandita, a man of great learning, was _de facto_
sovereign during the minority of his pupil Udayadityavarman nor did he
lose his influence when the young king attained his majority.

The shrine of the Royal God was first near Mt. Mahendra and was then
moved to Hariharalaya.[290] Its location was definitely fixed in the
reign of Indravarman, about 877 A