The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.31

c11.31

The first path led to the evaporated ritualism of the “offering in the internal fires of the breaths” (*prāṇāgnihotra*), that is, en clair: eating, ritualized by means of a few simple mantras and mouth rinsing.³³ However pale this may seem to be, it is more than just a bow in the direction of a hollow and outlived tradition. It is a ritual purified of the last vestiges of violence and death and solely geared to the maintenance of life. Above all, it marks the individualism of the eater. Alone and withdrawn into himself, he follows the injunction of “sacrifice” in sovereign independence from the world. And this brings us straightaway to the brahminic renouncer, who is no different from the ideal brahmin. Both stand apart and have no truck with the world. That the individualism implied in this type of ritualism is a palpable fiction makes the tension all the more poignant.