The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.16

c10.16

In a different legend, and in direct connection with the sacrificial regulations, the theme of mortal danger is given still clearer expression. The passage where this legend is recorded deals with the ritualistic question of the proper time or occasion for concluding a long-lasting sacrificial session (*sattra*).¹⁷ The times or occasions are when the participants have reached a place called Plakṣa Prāsravaṇa—probably representing the middle of the world¹⁸—when the cows they have taken with them have increased tenfold, or, conversely, when they have lost all their property, or, finally, when their leader dies. At first sight, this list of occasions for ending the sattra looks rather puzzling. On further consideration, however, the connecting idea becomes clear: the sacrifice is an all-or-nothing enterprise; it ends either in success or in failure, in triumphantly enriched life or in loss and death. The outcome is unpredictable. But the essential ambivalence of sacrifice goes still further, for even death and failure can still turn into a sign of ultimate triumph. This is what the story embedded in the rules for the sattra's termination tells us. A group of sacrificers under their leader (*gṛhapati*) Sthūra, “the stout one,” are engaged in a sattra. While performing the sacrifice, they are surrounded by a hostile band, defeated, and plundered. Sthūra is killed in the affray. The pitiful survivors sit in mourning round the body of their slain leader. Then comes the unexpected reversal. One of the mourners, the *dhruvagopa*, or guardian of the Soma, has a vision of the slain Sthūra passing along the place of sacrifice to the offering fire at the eastern end, going upward from there, and entering heaven. The dhruvagopa then calls out to the others: “Do not lament, he whom you are lamenting has gone upward from the hearth of the offering fire and entered heaven.” And so, out of their loss and defeat, Sthūra's followers gain praise and honor.¹⁹