The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.34

c10.34

Significantly, the correction for this "error" is the same as the one prescribed when someone passes with his sacrificial fires through someone else's ritual enclosure. Apparently the two cases—crossing with a vehicle or with one's fires—are one and the same. Such a "mishap" can hardly be explained otherwise than in terms of agonistic procedures between two competing groups of sacrificers within the compass of the same sacrifice. It is then hardly surprising that a sacrificer's death in foreign parts requires the same expiatory rite.⁴² As we have seen, violent conflict and death were the essence of sacrifice. In this way, we can understand why the serene and harmless agnihotra can still be identified with a vajra hurled at the enemy.