[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c10.36 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.36 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.36 - **Language:** English ### [c10.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10.36) Identification based on equivalences of cosmic and ritual elements is indeed the premier intellectual tool of the Vedic "science" of ritual. It enabled the ritualists to construe a closed mechanistic universe to be controlled and directed by the ritual. Uncertainty and catastrophe were replaced by the fail-safe certainty of ritualism. But the price of excluding uncertainty was internal contradiction. The ritualistic system breaks down on the insuperable obstacle of the transcendent. - [Previous: c10.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10.35) - [Next: c10.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10.37) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c10.36) · Pramāṇa