The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s1.8

c6.s1.8

The cooperation of the antithetical pair in guaranteeing the continuity of life seems to be even more explicit when we consider that their exchanges involve affinal relations. In general, the relations between patron and brahmin—or, in abstract terms, *kṣatra* and *brahman*—are represented as connubial. At the classical Soma ceremony, the yajamāna can marry off his daughters to the officiants. Finally, the officiating brahmin represents the brahman out of which the yajamāna is ritually reborn a brahmin. Seen against this background, the life-winning function of the exchanges stands out clearly. The evil (*pāpman*), which the dīkṣita transfers on his ritual birth to the brahmin, can thus produce rich returns. It is, so to say, transformed into *śrī*, good fortune.¹³