The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c11.s1.1

c11.s1.1

In the sacrificial arena, man had again and again to risk all in the contest for the ultimate truth that held the world together—a truth that could only be expressed in the paradoxical language of the seer's *brahman*. With the removal of the sacrificial nexus of meaning, the paradoxical tension of the personal brahma vision collapsed into the flatly impersonal *brāhmaṇa*, or identification of disconnected elements. Connective myth gave way to divisive doctrine. The demise of the central nexus left a great rift but for the same reason invited ever new attempts at bridging the unbridgeable.