The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s3.76

c19.s3.76

77. *BaudhDhS* 2. 18. 8–9. The ātmayajña is closely connected, if not identical, with the so-called *prāṇāgnihotra*, the offering of food in the (fires) of the breaths (*prāṇa*), i.e., a ritualized form of taking food. For the internal or mental sacrifice, see J. Varenne, *La Mahā-Nārāyaṇa-Upaniṣad*, (Paris, 1960), 2: 53. For the prāṇāgnihotra see the texts collected by Varenne, ibid., 69ff., and H. W. Bodewitz, *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa 1. 1–65, with a Study of Agnihotra and Prāṇāgnihotra* (Leiden, 1973). Though the ātmayajña in Baudhāyana’s dharma-sūtra is explicitly meant for the renouncer, Bodewitz points out that the prāṇāgnihotra is equally available to the brahmin householder and that consequently there need not be a specific, close connection with renunciation (ibid., 323). For our purpose, however, the essential point is the inner logic of the development that led from “external” to “internal” sacrifice. The latter promises independence from the outside world. Because of his extrasocial otherworldly stance, this is of no less importance for the brahmin householder than it is for the renouncer (see also chapter 6, section 8).