The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.17

c7.17

It seems characteristic that this contradiction stands out clearest in one of the achievements of the system, the building of the fire altar (*agnicayana*), viewed as Prajāpati's restoration.³⁵ This impressive ritual contains at the same time a glaring contradiction. Even though the ritual exclusively stresses the restoration of the primordeal unity of Prajāpati, the ''head'' is a pivotal element. Indeed, in the first of the five brick layers of the fire altar, in its center, five real skulls must be placed, a human skull in the middle, and west, east, south, and north of it respectively skulls of a horse, a bull, a ram, and a he-goat. The first question that arises is: How were these heads obtained? The answer seems obvious; they must be the heads of victims immolated at a sacrifice, and a human sacrifice at that. Therefore Rönnow, in his precited article, draws the conclusion that the agnicayana originally involved human sacrifice. However, the matter is more complex than that. Even apart from the question of human sacrifice, a sacrifice at which the heads of the victims are severed is completely irregular and cannot very well be made to fit the classical system. Obviously the system breaks here.