The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c16.24

c16.24

Indeed, recent work on traditional caste literature from Bengal and Gujarat bears out the idea of hierarchic interdependence upheld by graded marriage and food exchanges.²⁶ “Rank is maintained through gift and acceptance,” as one of the texts from Bengal has it.²⁷ Particularly interesting is that the exchanges upholding hierarchic interdependence are equated with “worship.” This term apparently harks back to the hallowed Veda and the transcendent injunctions of Vedic sacrifice. “Thus the whole of caste and rank revolved around what we might call the symbols and ideology of vedic worship. . . . Vedic worship is the attribute often referred to as the relative degree of purity.”²⁸ Society is thus integrated by graded access to the Veda through worshipping the next higher rank, only the brahmin having immediate access to the Veda. In short, Indian society is viewed as a sacrificial universe encompassed by the Veda.²⁹ In this connection, the word *jajmān*, used throughout India to refer to the patron or boss and derived from the technical term for the Vedic sacrificer (*yajamāna*), seems particularly relevant. Here, it would seem, we have a clear example of the assimilation of dominance by the value-based hierarchy represented by the Veda.