The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c17.16

c17.16

Now it can be shown, as G. J. Held did almost half a century ago, that originally the *varṇa* concept, instead of prescribing strict separation, implied a system of connubial and other exchanges.²⁷ The decisive turning point was the rejection of such inter-*varṇa* exchanges and their replacement by the opposite rule, which set the *varṇas* rigorously apart from each other. It will not be possible to date this turning point in absolute chronological terms. It can, however, be related to the rationalized Vedic ritual outlined in the brāhmaṇa texts. Here, as also in the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, we find the reflection of India's version of the "Axial Age," or in Weber's terms, the onset of "disenchantment" and transcendentalism that split the world between two principles.²⁸ The unified world of sacrifice, held together by agonistic, potlatch exchanges is irreparably broken.²⁹ The new rationally systematized ritual excludes the community, and the mythical presence of the gods evaporates. Alone the sacrificer stands on his place of sacrifice. There, through the artifice of the ritual, he creates his own rigorously ordered universe separate from and transcending the mundane world.