The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s13.22

c19.s13.22

22. See ibid., 93ff. (para. 32), for Dumont's view of the way the theoretical scheme of the four varṇas accounts for power and allows the hierarchy of purity, headed by the brahmins, to be conjugated with power represented by the second, kṣatriya, varṇa. Dumont recognizes that the varṇa scheme is not based on purity. But, although it gives a place to the kṣatriya, it cannot establish a valid relationship between the kṣatriya and the brahmin. The principle of the varṇa scheme is strict separation. On the problematic relationship, or rather the chasm, between king and brahmin, see chapter 10, esp. sections 1, 7–10.