The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.25

c11.25

It was not the world that was "disenchanted" but the ritual, when it was stripped of the numinous meaning of sacrifice. Though the word "sacrifice" (*yajña*) suggests continuity, it is significant that the technical term for the central act of offering is *tyāga*, "abandoning" or "renouncing," which implies a free, nonobligatory and nonbinding gift without social tension or strife.³⁰ "This to the god N.N., not to me," as the oblation formula has it. Indeed, in the theory of the four world ages, sacrifice is too much for our fallen and spineless times. Its place has been taken by the gift, *dāna*.³¹