The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c10.9

c10.9

The solution is reasonable enough, but, at the same time, it makes the gap between Veda and dharma all the more glaring. The problem of Vedic animal sacrifice remains a sensitive point of controversy. Yet the fiction of dharma being entirely founded on the Veda is a necessary one, for otherwise the dharma would be cut off from its source of ultimate authority. Here, then, we see a significant fault line, and it may not be fortuitous that we see it precisely in the matter of sacrifice. We shall therefore have to proceed with caution if we want to investigate the place of sacrifice—and especially of Vedic sacrifice—in Indian thought.