[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.s3.2 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.2 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.2 - **Language:** English ### [c6.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.2) Indeed saṃpad and saṃkhyāna were the premier techniques of the ritualists in elaborating the classical code of ritual. It enabled them to reduce the inventory of the ritual to a restricted number of liturgical means—chiefly meter, melody, and \*stoma\*, or serial arrangement of verses into small units (\*stotriyā\*) for chanting—which, applied in countless variations and combinations, could be made to express any content. Thus we find, for instance, a great number of ceremonies which are only differentiated by their stoma pattern. Thus Prajāpati's victory over Death expresses the breakthrough of the classical ritual. The "weapons" of Death, assimilated to those of Prajāpati, have no meaning of their own anymore and can even be dispensed with completely. In the end, only the characteristic liturgical forms of the mahāvrata chant (\*stotra\*) and the corresponding recitation (\*śastra\*) remain as parts of a normalized Soma ceremony, the \*sarvajit\*.⁴¹ - [Previous: c6.s3.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.1) - [Next: c6.s3.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.3) - [Up: c6.s3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s3.2) · Pramāṇa