The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.15

c6.s3.15

The obligation to give and the obligation to accept presents are, if anything, even more strongly emphasized; but it is significant that the obligation to return the compliment by giving counterpresents is conspicuously absent. In his "Essai sur le don," Mauss noted this absence with some astonishment: "Il faut convenir, que sur le sujet principal de notre démonstration, l'obligation de rendre, nous avons trouvé peu de faits dans le droit hindou . . . Même le plus clair consiste dans la règle qui l'interdit.''⁵³ To this effect, he quotes the interesting case of the *śrāddha* ceremony, the banquet in honor of the ancestors, which, as he observes, originally must have been an occasion to invite each other and to return invitations received formerly. This idea still seems in effect when reference is made to many guests entertained at a śrāddha.⁵⁴ It is interesting to note that the classical doctrine allows the invitation of the affinal relations.⁵⁵ But at the ideal śrāddha there should not be a large company,⁵⁶ and it is especially enjoined that the śrāddha as well as other ceremonies should not aim at establishing reciprocal relations.⁵⁷ In this connection, it is said that the food and gifts which people offer each other mutually (*saṃbhojanī*) are demoniacal (*piśācadakṣiṇā*).⁵⁸