The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s6.13

c19.s6.13

13. At this point, I should warn that though I am indebted to Renou's study, the above exposé is not covered by the authority of the great savant. The main difference is the emphasis I place on antithetical formulation, as against mere identification. Silence is the outcome of the verbal contest, not merely a stage on the way to the final formulation. Renou seems to suggest a similar line when he tentatively suggests that the classical brahmodya is ‘peut-être dégradé’ with regard to “l'énigme essentielle du védisme ancien,” but he does not follow this up. This does not preclude the possibility of riddles with explicit solutions at particular occasions. However, the oldest texts seem exclusively to give enigmatic formulations without explicit answers, as Renou also observes (“La Notion de *bráhman*,” 41).