The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c12.s5.1

c12.s5.1

How, then, could the newly won concept of authority be put to work in society? Here the classical king-brahmin formula comes into its own. A short digression may elucidate the meaning and origin of this formula. Originally, in the cyclical scheme, king and brahmin do not seem to have belonged to separate, mutually exclusive groups. On the contrary, at the unction festival of the *rājasūya*, the king—like any *dīkṣita*—is proclaimed to be a brahmin. That is, when he is about to go out into the wilds, he exchanges his royal quality for that of a brahmin. In other words, kingship and brahminhood are qualities that are exchanged in accordance with the cyclical paradigm.⁹⁶ In this way, we can also understand that, conversely, a brahmin—namely, the *adhvaryu* priest—takes over the royal function from the king at the beginning of the *aśvamedha*, when the expedition with the sacrificial horse is to begin.⁹⁷