The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s1.9

c6.s1.9

Actually the patron-brahmin pair, surviving in the classical ritual, stands for two opposed groups cooperating in the life-winning ritual. The classical system has limited the number of participants to seventeen: one yajamāna assisted by sixteen officiants. The Black Yajurveda, however, still knows of a group of dīkṣitas faced in the ritual by a group of non-dīkṣitas, namely, at the *ahīna* or Soma sacrifice lasting from two to twelve days. But in the classical system it is not allowed to officiate for a group of yajamānas. Thus the brahmin who is invited to officiate at a Soma sacrifice should ask whether it is an ahīna. If it is, he should reject the invitation.¹⁴ We may safely assume that the cooperation of two opposed groups, which is not mentioned in the White Yajurveda anymore, belongs to the preclassical system.