The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.s1.16

c7.s1.16

Here I think we hit the rock bottom of reality. The vaiśya or rival does not so much guard an anthill or a loam pit, however weighty their symbolic value, but his own head, his cattle, and his fields.⁶⁷ When he pays for it with his head, he offers up his cattle at the same time. This is also expressed in the symbolic language of the ritual. Thus, for instance, the ukthya Soma sacrifice is considered as the head of the sacrifice and at the same time as cattle; Vṛtra, threatened by Indra, tries to appease him: "He gave him the sacrifice, cattle, the ukthya." A parallel passage calls this "the head of the sacrifice".⁶⁸