The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c14.s1.8

c14.s1.8

This two-three scheme may also be at the root of the first group, but here another, related numerical principle seems to have disturbed the arrangement, to wit, the four-five scheme, used in the horse sacrifice to organize a similar set of personages. There we find four groups of guardians designated as ratnins¹⁴ round the royal horse which represents the king, to wit, *rājaputras*, *ugras* (or *rājanyas*), *sūta*-*grāmaṇīs*, and *kṣattṛ*-*saṃgrahītṛs*. Furthermore, four royal consorts prepare the horse for immolation. Each of them is accompanied by a group of attendants, who are the female counterparts of the horse’s guardians. These female attendants act again as partners of the four brahmin officiants in the exchange of obscenities which further the sham copulation of the chief consort and the immolated horse.¹⁵ This numerical arrangement is also clearly expressed in the unction ceremony of the rājasūya. The king, in the center, is anointed by four officiants standing round him in the four quarters; interestingly, these anointers are an affine (*janya-mitra*) in the east, the brahman officiant in the south, a vaiśya in the west, and the already mentioned rival cousin (*bhrātṛvya*) in the north. Here again we find kinship as a basic principle of organization.¹⁶