The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.35

c11.35

The general picture of ancient Indo-Aryan society suggested by our texts is that of a world constantly on the move in a relentless push toward the east. This eastward move is a stereotype of the ritual texts, as in the legend of the ritual fire’s triumphant progress from the Sarasvatī River in the west to the River Sadānīra in the east finally to be settled even beyond that border.³⁶ It is symbolically expressed in the extension of the ritual emplacement to the east and the bringing over of the fire to its new hearth at the eastern end of the extended emplacement. This is even clearer in the processional rituals (*yātsattra*), in which the whole emplacement is each day moved further east. A more balanced and realistic view of the historical process, however, seems to be contained in a passage relating the activities of the ancient Kuru-Pañcālas over the year. In the cool season, they set out toward the east, settled there temporarily at different places, forcibly took hold of the winter crop, fed their men and animals, and finally, at the end of the hot season, returned to the west again where they stayed during the rainy season and worked their own fields.³⁷