The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c14.s1.22

c14.s1.22

The principle of multiple kingship can already be noticed in the Vedic texts. Thus the *Taittirīya Saṃhitā* says that the two kings of the gods, Agni and Soma, are honored in the sacrifice in the midst of the gods in order, as the text explains, to keep the gods apart.²⁶ This statement recalls the two-three scheme discussed above. Indeed the parallel passage in the *Śatapatha* mentions Indra as the third god. This text then makes the interesting point that these three gods and the other gods reciprocally participate in each other so that "the gods came in a threefold way to consist of one 'deity' "; "he who knows thus becomes singly the chief of his people".²⁷ Thus the single king or chief can only be so on account of reciprocal relations with his people. But, so as to take away, as it were, any illusion about the privileged position of the king as the connecting third, the text then continues paradoxically with the statement: "Twofold in truth is this, there is no third",²⁸ thus stressing the essential ambiguity of the situation.