The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.18

c7.18

Let us have a look at the texts; how did the ritualists react to this situation? To begin with, the White Yajurveda starts out taking the boldest and seemingly simplest line.³⁶ The five ''animals,'' including the human victim, are simply immolated according to the systematized standard ritual of the animal sacrifice. In terms of the standard ritual, this means only that an additional rule is given regarding the severing of the heads, since this has not been taught in the previous parts of the text. "Having placed a grass blade on the necks he takes the heads," which takes place after taking out the omentum,³⁷ when the victim has already been consecrated and killed in the normal way, by suffocation. Apparently the human victim gets the benefit of being killed in a separate shed. "On paper" the appearances of the ritual system are saved, since the delicate matter is couched in the normalized terms of the standard ritual. Actually the texts are not so confident as it would appear.