[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) › c6.s3.1 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.1 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.1 - **Language:** English ### [c6.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.1) This solution seems to be the leading principle that shaped the classical ritual. It is graphically described in the story of Prajāpati's contest with and final victory over Death. The \*Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa\*⁴⁰ tells this story as an explanation of the classical form of the mahāvrata ceremony. In its classical form, the mahāvrata is a normalized Soma ceremony, but it has preserved a complex of markedly archaic rites: different kinds of contests (a chariot race among others), dancing, singing, drumming, lute playing, and copulation. The \*Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa\* relates that Prajāpati and Death competed with each other through rival sacrifices. In this contest, Prajāpati had as his "weapons" (\*yajñāyudhāni\*) the liturgy of the classical, normalized Soma ritual (\*tad yad yajñe stūyate, yac chasyate, yat pracaryate\*). The arsenal of Death consisted in the archaic rites (\*yad vīṇāyām gīyate, yan nṛtyate, yad vṛthācaryate\*). A long time the outcome of the contest remains undecided, but finally Prajāpati overcomes his rival through the discovery of the symbolical and numerical equivalences (\*saṃpad, saṃkhyāna\*). This meant that Prajāpati, by means of the symbolical and numerical equivalences, brought the ritual "weapons" of Death under the same denominator as his own "weapons." - [Previous: c6.s2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s2.4) - [Next: c6.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.2) - [Up: c6.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3) ## Cites (1) - [Jaiminīyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.jaiminiya) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.1) · Pramāṇa