The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s3.7

c6.s3.7

Instead of the transversal axis of the reciprocal relations with the others, everything is now concentrated on the vertical axis of the individual life, or lives, of the single yajamāna. It is perhaps in this light that we can understand the novelty and the mystery of the Upaniṣadic karma doctrine which Yājñavalkya could not explain to Ārtabhāga in front of the other participants in the verbal contest in King Janaka's assembly. "Good (*puṇya*) one becomes by good work, evil (*pāpa*) by evil work''.⁴⁷ One is tempted to think that Yājñavalkya and Ārtabhāga had to go outside to talk about this doctrine because it was the negation of the contest ideology.