The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c13.s1.24

c13.s1.24

The consideration of the wife's "act of truth" brings us to a further point: the ritual of atonement is played out by two parties that are linked by connubial alliance—an alliance that involves both cooperation and strife. The ambivalence of this relationship is also expressed elsewhere. Thus evil (*pāpman*) is to be taken away from the aśvamedha sacrificer by affinal relatives, the son of a younger sister of the sacrificer's father and the son of a younger sister of his mother.²⁹ In the same vein, it is prayed that the rival (*sapatna*) may be subjugated like the daughter-inlaw.³⁰ In the varuṇapraghāsa, this idea receives expression in the unusual feature of two *vedis*, "altars," each with its own offering fire—the main northern one served by the adhvaryu, and the southern smaller one served by his assistant, the pratiprasthātṛ.³¹ The northern vedi is said to be the sacrificer's own, whereas the southern one belongs to his rival (*bhrātṛvya*);³² or the northern vedi is the *yoni*, the birthplace, of the "eaters," and the other the yoni of those that are to be "eaten";³³ or again, the northern one is connected with Varuṇa, with spiritual and temporal dominion (*brahman* and *kṣatra*), the southern one with the Maruts or the people (*viś*).³⁴