The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.27

c11.27

These two worlds have to exist together and must work out their mutual accommodation, even though their essential incompatibility makes all accommodation precarious. There is, of course, the temptation to exploit the magic potential of Vedic ritualism for worldly uses. Its brahmin experts could easily turn into magicians and demonstrably often did so. But we have seen already that this possibility is in the last resort rejected and the brahmin is forbidden to put his Vedic expertise at the service of worldly interests. The ideal brahmin, like the Veda, stands apart from the world and cultivates the Veda by himself. The world, on the other hand, could not remain unaffected. The brahmin's standing apart illustrates how the world was impaired by the withdrawal of ultimate value and legitimation. The king and the web of power relations he represents especially stand in need of the brahmin's legitimizing services. But it is exactly the king who is singled out as the one whom the brahmin should utterly shun.³² The situation is the more contradictory for the fact that subsistence and survival may force the brahmin to turn to the king for support.