The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c5.25

c5.25

The interesting point is that this text allows us clearly to discern the realities and their limitations, while at the same time enunciating an ideal state of affairs transcending by far the actual possibilities. But both viewpoints are blended into one whole. It is the same contradictory double point of vision we noticed before as the basis of tradition. On the one hand, the unavoidable reality of the “little kingdom” and the segmentary order had to be accounted for, while on the other, a way out toward an ideal state of affairs transcending the fluidity of the actual situation had to be formulated so as to offer a fixed reference point for legitimation.