[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.s6.6 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s6.6 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c6.s6.6 - **Language:** English ### [c6.s6.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6.6) The ideal brahmin should not follow, for the sake of subsistence, "the way of the world" (\*lokavṛtta\*) as \*Manu\* 4. 11 enjoins. In fact, the ideal brahmin is the renouncer. Thus \*Manu\* 4. 7 gives a hierarchy of brahmins according to the stores of grain they possess, the smaller the store the higher the brahmin; the highest brahmin has no provisions even for the next day. Having no provisions is exactly the rule presribed for the renouncer, as Gautama's \*Dharmasūtra\* 3.11 has it. In general, when we look for the characteristics of the ideal brahmin, we notice throughout the emphasis on renunciatory attitudes: He speaks truth, does not injure life, controls his senses, restrains passion and anger; for him the world is equal to his self, he studies and teaches, sacrifices and officiates, he gives (but apparently does not receive);⁸⁹ he is a brahmacārin,⁹⁰ he guards the four gates of his body, he has no upper-garment, does not sleep on a couch, he is equally pleased in all the opposites and does not need the others; he knows the course of all creatures, he does not cause danger to the creatures nor do they cause danger to him, he is the self of all creatures.⁹¹ - [Previous: c6.s6.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6.5) - [Next: c6.s6.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6.7) - [Up: c6.s6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6) ## Cites (2) - [Mānava Dharmaśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.manu.4.11) — Manu & Bhṛgu, Sanskrit - [Gautamadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.gautama.3.11) — Gautama (dharmasūtrakāra), Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c6.s6.6) · Pramāṇa