The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c14.s1.30

c14.s1.30

In the royal consecration, there is an episode where the king, after unction and enthronement, is addressed as *brahmán*. This episode looks very much like a reduced version of the brahmodya scenario. Seated on the throne, symbolically the center of the universe, the king calls out to each of the four chief officiants sitting around him to the four quarters, "O brahman." The addressed officiant answers, "Thou, O king, art brahman," each adding an identification of the king to one of the four deities, Savitṛ, Indra, Mitra, and Varuṇa.³⁶ Though there is no enigma here but only straightforward identification, it seems clear that the king is made to stand out as the cosmic connection holding the universe together. The little ceremony signifies the dispersal and the concentration of the "connection" by the king.