The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.40

c10.40

Originally, then, there was a cycle consisting of two opposite phases: on the one hand that of the consecrated warrior, on the other hand that of the munificent sacrificer.⁴⁸ The pivot and connecting point of this, in more than one sense, vicious circle was the sacrificial contest with its uncertain outcome. This cyclical course of sacrifice can be genetically connected with the mechanistically conceived circulation between heaven and earth propounded by ritualistic theory. But the ritual is of an entirely different nature. It removed the catastrophic turning point and thereby excluded the transcendent. The old cycle, deprived of its dynamic center, collapsed. The two opposite phases "imploded" into the now vacant center. The aggressively acquisitive dīkṣita fell into the same place as the peacefully munificent yajamāna. The kṣatriya warrior must therefore at the same time act as a peaceful sacrificer. By the same token, the brahmin should be able to officiate for the kṣatriya and to accept his food and gifts, notwithstanding his impurity. Hence the contradiction of the rules that exclude the kṣatriya from the agnihotra and yet allow him to act as yajamāna at the Soma sacrifice. These rules that were once perfectly understandable in their original context result in an insoluble contradiction now that the two opposite phases have come to coincide.