[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c19.s3.16 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s3.16 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s3.16 - **Language:** English ### [c19.s3.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3.16) 16. It may not be a fortuitous invention that the \*Mahābhārata\* gives an elaborate identification of battle and sacrifice (\*Mbh\* 12. 98). Cf. Marcel Mauss’s observation: “Le \*Mahābhārata\* est l’histoire d’un gigantesque potlatch” (“Essai sur le don,” \*Sociologie et Anthropologie\* (Paris 1950), 243). Mauss’s study is the starting point of G. J. Held, \*The Mahābhārata: An ethnological study\* (Leiden, 1936). - [Previous: c19.s3.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3.15) - [Next: c19.s3.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3.17) - [Up: c19.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3) ## Linked texts (1) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa.12.98) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s3.16) · Pramāṇa