The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s3.20

c19.s3.20

20. For the gods and asuras competing in the ritual, see, e.g., *KS* 23. 7. See for the food exchanges, *JB* 1. 223 (Auswahl no. 83): “The asuras had swallowed poison from the gods; they had swallowed it unknowingly thinking it to be food.” After what we have seen of the ideas underlying the gift, we can readily understand their feeling poisoned (cf. also *PB* 19. 4. 2). For the reversed relationship, see *JB* 3. 118: “In the beginning these worlds were in the possession of the asuras; the devas, intent on śraddhā and tapas, were dependent on them for their livelihood.” Here we may compare *RV* 10. 151. 3, according to which the gods obtained śraddhā with the asuras. The reversible relationship between devas and asuras seems still to survive to some extent when it is related that the asuras had originally won command over the universe from the gods, that the gods overcame the asuras, but that later on, the asuras will again conquer the gods. Similarly, when Indra has won Śrī from Bali, Bali says that at a future occasion there will again be a *devāsuram yuddham*, in which he will win (*Mbh* 12. 225. 31).