The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.20

c7.20

The Black Yajurveda is less uniformly systematized than the White and is therefore less concerned with solving the problem in terms of the system. It must, however, take essentially the same position.⁴⁰ Here again we find the same alternatives. The important difference is the treatment of the human head, to which we shall presently return. The number five is completed by the addition of an extra he-goat for Prajāpati, which obviously is meant to take the place of the human victim.⁴¹ The Black Yajurveda thus offers two alternatives: the five animals, the sacrifice being either systematically concluded with all five or with the Prajāpati he-goat while the four other animals are "freed" (*utsṛjati*), i.e., let out of the sacrificial context, and beheaded;⁴² or, instead of the five animals, a single he-goat for Vāyu Niyutvat. In the latter case, the altar is built with only the head of the Vāyu victim.