The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c12.32

c12.32

The interpretation of the sequence unction, war or raiding expedition, enthronization as a cycle connecting grāma and araṇya receives further corroboration from the fact that it is again encompassed in a greater cycle of the rājasūya along the same lines. This greater cycle is marked by the unction and haircutting Soma festivals. Unction and haircutting are here what dīkṣā and final bath (*avabhṛtha*) are in the normalized Soma sacrifice. During the intervening period, the anointed is, like the dīkṣitā, subjected to a number of restrictions, such as the interdiction of shaving and haircutting, of treading upon the earth without wearing shoes, of cleaning his teeth, and, significantly, of the duty to accept battle when challenged. For our purpose, the interesting point is that the interval between the unction and haircutting festivals is filled out with a symbolic expedition abroad. First there is the series of ten offerings for which the fires are each time removed further to the north or east, the so-called *saṃsṛp* offerings. In this way, different stages on the road of the expedition are marked. Then follows a sacrifice featuring the drinking of soma by a hundred brahmins (*daśapeya*)—the idea probably being the solemnizing of a bond or covenant.⁶⁹ The next set of offerings—significantly called offerings of the yokings or harnessings (*prayujāṃ havīṃṣi*)—explicitly symbolize another expedition, for these offerings are explained by the account of how the Kurus and Pañcālas of old went every year in the cool season on a raiding expedition toward the east and returned at the end of the hot season.⁷⁰ The cycle is then finally closed by the haircutting solemnity.