The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.22

c7.22

The words in which Baudhāyana indicates the deviant ritual, few though they are, are highly suggestive of an agonistic ritual. The dicing hardly needs comment in this connection, its agonistic character is self-evident. The verb *pacati*, "to cook," does not belong to the standard ritual vocabulary, *śrapayati* being preferentially used. It does however occur, apart from the *Ṛgveda*, for example, in the *Aśvamedha* hymns 1. 162–63, in connection with the vrātyas, whose ritual presents another breaking point in the system and who are known for their unorthodox aggressive behavior and raiding habits.⁴⁵ Thus Baudhāyana, enumerating the equivalences of the vrātya acts to the standard ritual, states: "The goat that they snatch away and cook is their animal (sacrifice)".⁴⁶