[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.s7 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s7: Chapter Six The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c19.s7 - **Language:** English ### Chapter Six ### [c19.s7.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.1) 1. On the relationship of the dharma with the Veda, see J. C. Heesterman, "Die Autorität des Veda," in Gerhard Oberhammer \*Offenbarung: Geistige Realität des Menschen\*, ed. (Vienna, 1974), 29–40. ### [c19.s7.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.2) 2. Madeline Biardeau and Charles Malamoud, \*Le Sacrifice dans l'Inde ancienne\* (Paris, 1976). ### [c19.s7.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.3) 3. I refer to the agnicayana performance recorded by J. F. Staal and R. Gardner. For a full description, see J. F. Staal, ed., \*Agni\* 2 vols., (Berkeley, 1983). ### [c19.s7.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.4) 4. A. Hillebrandt, \*Ritualliteratur\* (Strassburg, 1897), 75. ### [c19.s7.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.5) 5. On the prāṇāgnihotra see below, section 7. ### [c19.s7.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.6) 6. Robert Lingat, \*Les Sources du droit dans le système traditionel de l'Inde\* (Paris, 1967), 239. ### [c19.s7.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.7) 7. Birardeau and Malamoud, \*Le Sacrifice\*, 153. ### [c19.s7.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.8) 8. The question is also posed by Professor Biardeau: "Le problème soulevé maintenant est donc de savoir si le sacrifice n'est plus effectivement qu'une affaire de langage" (ibid., 81). She concludes, however, that even the confrontation with world renunciation could not dislodge sacrifice from its central position. See my review of her study, \*Indo-Iranian Journal\* 21 (1979): 47–49. ### [c19.s7.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.9) 9. The expression is L. Renou's. See "Le Destin du Veda," \*Études védiques et paṇinéennes\* 6 (1980): 2. ### [c19.s7.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.10) 10. On the problem of ahiṃsā, cf. L. Alsdorf, \*Beiträge zur Geschichte von Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in Indien\* (Wiesbaden, 1962); H.-P. Schmidt, "The Origin of \*ahiṃsa\*," in \*Mélanges d'Indianisme à la mémoire de Louis Renou\* (Paris, 1968), 625–55; also my review of Alsdorf, in \*Indo-Iranian Journal\* 9 (1960): 147–49. For the classical Mīmāṃsā view denying ahiṃsā ultimate authority, which it reserves for the Vedic injunction of animal sacrifice, see W. Halbfass, \*Śankara und Kumārila, Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik\* 9 (Reinbek, 1983), 2–9. For our purpose, the main point is the unresolved and indeed insoluble conflict between Vedic sacrifice and ahiṃsā. ### [c19.s7.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.11) 11. For a critique of current explanations of sacrifice, see J. van Baal, "Offering, Sacrifice, and Gift," \*Numen\* 23 (1976): 161–78. Van Baal stresses the communicative function of sacrifice. ### [c19.s7.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.12) 12. Marcel Mauss, “Essai sur le don,” \*Année Sociologique\*, n.s. 1 (1924): 30–186; reprinted in Mauss, \*Sociologie et Anthropologie\* (Paris, 1950). ### [c19.s7.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.13) 13. \*RV\* 10. 90. 16 ( = 1. 164. 50): \*Tā́ni dhā́rmāṇi prathamā́ny āsan\*. ### [c19.s7.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.14) 14. \*ŚB\* 3. 6. 3. 1: \*Yajñáṁ hyèvédáṁ sárvam ánu\*. H. Oldenberg, \*Die Religion des Veda\*, (Stuttgart and Berlin, 1923), 321; Oldenbergg, \*Die Weltanschauung der Brāhmaṇa-Texte\* (Göttingen, 1919), 150; S. Lévi, \*La Doctrine du sacrifice\*, reprint ed. (Paris, 1966), 9. It is perhaps significant that this idea finds it most systematic expression in the speculations on the agnihotra sacrifice, which will be discussed below, sections 6–8. ### [c19.s7.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.15) 15. E.g., \*ŚB\* 12. 2. 3. 12. See J. C. Heesterman, “Opferwildnis und Ritualordnung,” in \*Epiphanie des Heils\*, ed. Gerhard Oberhammer (Vienna, 1982), 13–25. ### [c19.s7.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.16) 16. The legend is found in \*AB\* 7. 13–18 and \*ŚāṅkhŚS\* 15. 17–19 (cf. F. Weller, \*Die Legende von Śunaḥśepa\* \[Berlin, 1956\]). The sons who rebel against the adoption are expelled by their father with the words: “Your progeny will have the end (or the ends, \*antam\*, \*antān\*) as its share.” This refers to the far out areas at the end of the world, where, as the text says, they will become the peripheral tribes of Andhras, Puṇḍras, Śabaras, Pulindas, and Mūtibus (or Mūcipas). But the word \*anta-\* seems to refer to death and impurity as well. The expelled sons are burdened with the evil of death, as is in keeping with their impurity as tribals on the fringes of brahminic civilization. The commentator Sāyaṇa speaks here of “caṇḍālas and the like.” ### [c19.s7.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.17) 17. \*JB\* 2. 297–99 (Auswahl, no. 156). ### [c19.s7.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.18) 18. According to \*JUB\* 4. 26. 12, the center of the earth is only one span to the north of this spot. ### [c19.s7.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.19) 19. The idea of the fallen warrior’s ascent to heaven is found in India in various forms, especially as salvation in later times. Thus, for instance, the demon who attains salvation when slain by the goddess or Śiśupāla’s fiery essence being united with the divine Kṛṣṇa after the latter has decapitated him with his discus weapon (\*Mbh\* 2. 45. 25–29; \*Viṣṇu-Purāṇa\* 4. 15. 12–15; in the second passage, the salvation motif is stressed). See, in general, J. Filliozat, ‘L’Abandon de la vie par le sage et les suicides du criminel et du héros dans la tradition indienne,” \*Arts Asiatiques\* 15 (1967): 65–88. In this connection, it is interesting that the victim of violent death and the deceased ascetic are put on a par as beneficiaries of the Nārāyaṇabali sacrifice (H. Krick, “Nārāyaṇabali und Opfertod,” \*Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd und Ostasiens\* 21 (1977): 71–141. ### [c19.s7.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.20) 20. \*JB\* 2. 297 (Cf. n. 17). ### [c19.s7.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.21) 21. \*JB\* 1. 337. ### [c19.s7.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.22) 22. E.g., \*Mbh\* 2. 22. 17; 5. 141. 29ff; 12. 98. 12ff. It is not fortuitous that Śiśupāla’s decapitation by Kṛṣṇa (see above, n. 19) takes place in the context of the rājasūya sacrifice. ### [c19.s7.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.23) 23. \*Mbh\* 1. 2. 12; cf. 7. 11. 43: \*yugasyeva paryāsaḥ\*. For the interpretation of the \*Mahābhārata\* war as a sacrifice, see H. Gehrts, \*Mahābhārata\* (Bonn, 1975), 162ff., 234ff. Also above, chapter 2, section 3 and note 16. ### [c19.s7.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.24) 24. \*Mbh\* 2. 12. 29–30, 46. 7–17. ### [c19.s7.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.25) 25. On the kalivarjyas, see P. V. Kane, \*History of Dharmaśāstra\*, 2d ed., (Poona, 1973), 3: 926f. ### [c19.s7.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.26) 26. \*Manu\* 1. 86. See also Robert Lingat, “Time and the Dharma,” \*Contributions to Indian Sociology\* 6 (1962): 7–16. ### [c19.s7.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.27) 27. See above, chapter 3. For the popular buffalo sacrifices (where the victim is immolated by decapitation), see Biardeau and Malamoud, \*Le Sacrifice\*, 144–53. ### [c19.s7.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.28) 28. E.G., \*ŚB\* 11. 6. 2. 6–10. Though the idea of cosmic circulation is clearest in the Upaniṣads (Cf. E. Frauwallner, \*Geschichte der Indischen Philosophie\* (Salzburg, 1953), 49f; U. Schneider, Die altindische Lehre vom Kreislauf des Wassers, \*Saeculum\* 12 \[1961\]: 1–11), it is no less important in ritualistic thinking. For an early instance, see \*RV\* 1. 164. 51. ### [c19.s7.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.29) 29. See above, chapter 5, section 5, and especially note 26. ### [c19.s7.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.30) 30. For the noncommunal, strictly individual nature of Vedic ritual, see chapter 2, especially sections 6 and 7. Cf. also \*Manu\* 3. 151, 164; 4. 205; 11. 198. ### [c19.s7.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.31) 31. For a detailed description according to the śrautasūtras see P. E. Dumont, \*L'Agnihotra\* (Baltimore, 1939). The explanations in the brāhmaṇa texts have been gathered, translated, and annotated by H. W. Bodewitz, \*The Daily Evening and Morning Offering according to the Brāhamaṇas\* (Leiden, 1976). ### [c19.s7.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.32) 32. Oldenberg, \*Weltanschauung\*; P. E. Dumont, L'Agnihotra, vii–ix; Bodewitz, \*Evening and Morning Offering\*, 2–5. ### [c19.s7.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.33) 33. \*ŚB\* 2. 3. 1. 11–12. ### [c19.s7.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.34) 34. \*TB\* 2. 1. 5. 3. ### [c19.s7.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.35) 35. \*ŚB\* 1. 2. 1. 20; 2. 2. 2. 1; 3. 9. 4. 2; 4. 3. 4. 1; 11. 1. 2. 1. ### [c19.s7.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.36) 36. \*Manu\* 3. 68. ### [c19.s7.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.37) 37. \*ŚB\* 11. 6. 1; \*JB\* 1. 42–43. Cf. H. W. Bodewitz, \*Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa 1.1–65\*, translation and commentary (Leiden, 1973), 99ff. See also Schmidt, “Origin of \*ahiṃsā\*,” 644f. ### [c19.s7.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.38) 38. For the need of expiation, see \*TB\* 2. 1. 5. 3; for food as the remainder of the agnihotra, see \*ŚB\* 2. 3. 1. 11f. ### [c19.s7.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.39) 39. See the passages translated by Bodewitz, \*Evening and Morning Offering\*, 155–7. Though these passages do not directly refer to expiation but the subduing of death—equated with the fire—by the food offering, the link with the expiation of the sin of “killing” the food can hardly be overlooked. These passages keep strictly within the compass of the ritual and its cosmic mechanism without dealing with the worldy matter of food and its provenance. ### [c19.s7.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.40) ⁴⁰ \*TB\* 2. 1. 5. 11. ### [c19.s7.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.41) ⁴¹ \*MS\* 1. 8. 9: 130. 9; \*TB\* 1. 4. 4. 10; \*ŚB\* 12. 4. 1. 2; \*JB\* 1. 51; \*AB\* 7. 12. 3; \*ĀpŚS\* 9. 10. 15–17 (cf. also 9. 6. 11 and 14. 31. 2). ### [c19.s7.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.42) ⁴² \*ĀpŚS\* 9. 11. 1–4. This recalls the misfortune of Sthūra and similar cases of slain sacrificers, discussed above, section 3. ### [c19.s7.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.43) ⁴³ \*JB\* 2. 69–70. See chapter 2, section 6. ### [c19.s7.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.44) ⁴⁴ \*ĀpŚS\* 6. 15. 10; \*MS\* 1. 8. 7: 126. ### [c19.s7.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.45) ¹⁷ See further, P. E. Dumont, \*L'Agnihotra\*, 37f., 87f., 136; Bodewitz, \*Evening and Morning Offering\*, 116f. ### [c19.s7.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.46) ⁴⁵ The sacrifice, of course, involves a sacrificial meal. Hence its character of a “stilisiertes Gastmahl” (P. Thieme, “Vorzarathustrisches bei den Zarathustriern,” \*Zeitschrift der Deutsche Morgenlämdische Geschicte\* 107 \[1957\]: 90). The sacrificial meal as a communal feast was, however, broken up and eliminated from the śrauta ritual. See J. C. Heesterman, “Veda and Society,” \*Studia Orientalia\* 50 (1981): 50–64. ### [c19.s7.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.47) ⁴⁶ For the dīkṣita's setting out on a chariot, see \*ĀpŚS\* 10. 19. 6ff.; for his alms begging tour (\*saniyācana\*), ibid. 10. 18. 4ff. Though the two activities are treated by the śrauta rules as two separate episodes, they are clearly connected. Moreover, it would otherwise be inexplicable why the dīkṣita should travel at all. The combination of chariot and “begging” brings us back to the original raiding habits that belong to the ancient sacrificial scenario. Here we see how the ritualists “defused” the warrior aspect of the dīkṣā, namely by disjoining and isolating its elements. In a ### [c19.s7.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.48) similar way, the battle for “the head of the sacrifice” was defused and its separate elements made innocuous, albeit at the price of each becoming in itself inexplicable (see chapter 3). ### [c19.s7.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.49) 47. For the impurity of the dīkṣitā, see J. C. Heesterman “Vrātya and Sacrifice,” \*Indo-Iranian Journal\* 6 (1962): 11–15. ### [c19.s7.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.50) 48. See J. C. Heesterman “Householder and Wanderer,” in \*Way of Life: Essays in Honour of Louis Dumont\*, ed. T. N. Madan (New Delhi, 1982), 251–71, esp. 255. ### [c19.s7.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.51) 49. \*BaudhDhS\* 2. 12. 1–15 and 2. 18. 8–9. See also chapter 2, note 78 and the literature cited there. For the prāṇāgnihotra as “a ceremony for dining,” see Bodewitz, \*Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa\*, 256, 310. ### [c19.s7.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.52) 50. \*MS\* 3. 6. 6: 67. 6; 3. 6. 10: 74. 7; \*KS\* 23. 7: 82, 21; \*ŚB\* 12. 3. 5. 3; \*JB\* 2. 38 (Auswahl no. 120); \*KB\* 7. 3; \*ĀpŚS\* 10. 14. 4–7; 16. 11; 17. 8. ### [c19.s7.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c19.s7.53) 51. In this respect, it may be significant that among the Nambudiris in Central Kerala, whose remarkable devotion to Vedic śrauta ritual has kept its practice alive till the present day (see above, n. 3), the great landed families do not appear, as a rule, to perform these sacrifices. A traditional explanation has it that such families have performed them in the past up to ninety-nine times; one more time would make them equal to Indra, which would be too dangerous an ambition. One might also say that they have to the extent of the humanly possible left sacrifice behind them. 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