The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.13

c10.13

Yet, when we turn to the Vedic conception of sacrifice, it is striking to notice that it is regularly connected with unbroken universal order. The cosmogonic Puruṣa hymn, *Ṛgveda* 10. 90, tells us that the gods sacrificed and dismembered the cosmic man (púruṣa), establishing thereby the world and its order. "These were the first institutions".¹³ Even though the world is founded on the destructive violence of sacrifice, the sacrificial order is nonetheless viewed as the rigidly stable order of the universe established by the gods. The rules of sacrifice are the world's "first institutions." Viewed in this way, sacrifice is the supreme means to found and maintain universal order. "All this here follows sacrifice".¹⁴