The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s5.4

c6.s5.4

In these rules we can recognize a perhaps not too distant reflection of the preclassical alternating pattern: the sacrificer offers the sacrificial banquet and presents to the others; then he regains what he has spent by resorting to the forest and going as a guest to other people to be entertained in his turn. Having thus recouped strength, he finally returns home, possibly to start on a new cycle. A similar alternation seems to have been the basis of the vrātya ritual, which even in its normalized classical form shows a markedly agonistic character. Perhaps we can even recognize this pattern in the epics, in the vicissitudes of the Pāṇḍavas and of Rāma. The fortunes of the Pāṇḍavas especially alternate between royal court and forest, and the joints of the cycle, the points where the reversals take place, are marked by large-scale contests. It would seem to me that here perhaps lies also the origin of the well-known figure of the exiled (*aparuddha*) king, who turns up in the ritual texts with disconcerting frequency.⁸² In this connection, it is interesting that it is said that one should renounce the world in times of distress, when overcome by old age or when vanquished by the enemy.⁸³