The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.21

c13.s1.21

In the first place, when we take the description of the varuṇapraghāsa as our guide,²³ this festival is essentially concerned with guilt and atonement. No doubt any sacrifice involves guilt and expiation, be it only on account of the immolation involved, but here they are the central issue. As the *Maitrāyaṇī* and *Kāṭhaka Saṃhitās* tell it, Prajāpati created the beings through the *vaiśvadeva* seasonal sacrifice that is performed at the end of the cool season four months earlier, but they were seized by poverty and anxiety (*aṃhas*), or rather by Varuṇa.²⁴ The express purpose of the varuṇapraghāsa is the release from Varuṇa's bonds, and this motive recurs in the brāhmaṇa explanations of all the sacrifice's distinctive features. As the brāhmaṇas put it: "As little guilt (*enas*) as there is in a child just born, so little guilt is there in him who performs the varuṇapraghāsa sacrifice".²⁵