The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.20

c10.20

In the epic, sacrifice has in fact already been overcome. As we saw, it belongs to the preceding world era, the *dvāparayuga*, which ends in the self-defeating paroxysm of the *Mahābhārata* war. In the following era, our present *kaliyuga*, animal sacrifice belongs to the *kalivarjya* institutions, which should not be put into practice in the *kaliyuga*. The men of our era are no longer deemed strong enough to cope with the heady excitement and terror of sacrifice.²⁵ In the *dvāpara* era, sacrifice was the foremost meritorious work, but in our age it has been replaced by the gift.²⁶