The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.7

c10.7

There are many indications that we shall not be able to understand Hinduism and its view of the transcendent in this way. Take, for example, the plain fact that although the Veda enjoys supramundane, transcendent authority, its painfully detailed system of ritual injunctions lacks all relationship to the reality it is ostensibly meant to govern. The dharma's total dependence on the Veda is clearly a pious fiction. In some respects, the two are even incompatible. This is the case in the tangled matter of animal sacrifice, enjoined in Vedic ritual but against the dharma's rule of *ahiṃsā*, which prohibits the taking of any life. The dharma texts can only deal with the Vedic injunction by setting it apart in a separate autonomous sphere of its own;