The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.35

c10.35

The elimination of death and catastrophe from the ritual does not seem to have been a gradual and cumulative process of erosion but a conscious reform. Its aim was to control the perils of the quest for transcendence. That the reformers were well aware of the issue comes out clearly in the mythical story of the sacrificial contest between the Lord of Life, Prajāpati, and his opponent Death—a story that may be considered the "charter myth" of Vedic ritualism.⁴³ The decisive point is Prajāpati's "seeing" the equivalence of the elements of his sacrifice with those of his opponent's sacrifice. Prajāpati is thereby enabled to integrate the rival sacrifice and to overcome Death. "Since then," the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa* proudly concludes, "there is no sacrificial contest anymore; the sacrifice is one, Prajāpati is the sacrifice." Conflict and the rival, Death, have been eliminated.