The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.10

c11.10

The point to be retained is the break between the revelatory vision of the seers and the *śruti* that purports to be the content of their vision. Though one readily understands that the seers' vision is the source of the ritual formulas (*mantra*), it is hard to accept the notion that the ecstatic visions should be equally concerned with ritualistic minutiae, for the corpus of texts which form the *śruti* is concerned with the systematic elaboration of the utterly complicated ritual. Or, as an authoritative text has it, "Veda means *mantra* and *brāhmaṇa*",⁷ that is, ritual formula and exposition of the liturgical rules. There is, then, a decisive gap between the revelatory vision and its ritualistic substance. It is in this gap—and not in the preceding age of the seers—that the axial turning point is situated. This turning point does not lead to the exploitation of the revelation but is aimed at overcoming it. It replaces vision and revelation with something entirely different, namely, the rational order of ritualism that by itself constitutes ultimate truth and leaves no room for anything so unsettling as revelatory vision.