The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c12.33

c12.33

In this connection, two further points are worth mentioning. First, the prayujāṃ havīṃṣi as evidenced by the explanatory account are not only a setting out but equally a coming back again. Accordingly, the time for the haircutting is set on the full-moon day of the month Jyaiṣṭha or Aṣāḍha, that is, at the end of the hot season. The second point is that, although this is not specified in the context of the rājasūya, in another consecratory Soma sacrifice, the *rājābhiṣeka*, where we find the same haircutting rite with the same set of special mantras again, the rite is connected with an enthronization, the king being seated on a throne during the ceremony.⁷¹ So the greater cycle parallels exactly its shorter counterpart, unction–chariot drive–enthronization. The same pattern is shown in Baudhāyana’s version of the *vājapeya*, where a chariot race is the central feature, preceded by an unction and followed by the “ascent to heaven” (i.e., climbing the sacrificial post) and the enthronization.⁷²