[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c12.7 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c12.7 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c12.7 - **Language:** English ### [c12.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12.7) It is tempting to explain the conflicting views as the ambivalence that naturally goes with the awe-inspiring numinosity of kingship. Thus the king is likened to a fire which, when approached carelessly, burns not only the single transgressor, as a normal fire would, but destroys his whole family together with his cattle and other properties.¹³ The restrictions on the consecrated (\*abhiṣikta\*) king,¹⁴ which in fact make him a sacred person—or, more precisely, a consecrated sacrificer (\*dīkṣita\*)—point in the same direction, as does the \*Atharvaveda\* when it says that the king protects the realm by \*brahmacarya\* and \*tapas\*,¹⁵ that is, by the ascetic practices that are proper to the \*dīkṣita\*. - [Previous: c12.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12.6) - [Next: c12.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12.8) - [Up: c12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12) ## Linked texts (1) - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c12.7) · Pramāṇa