The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.s1.17

c7.s1.17

The antagonist is not just an enemy, he is related to the conquering party in a dualistic pattern. This is shown, for instance, in the rājasūya, where the sacrificer, in a ritualized raid, conquers the cattle of his relative.⁶⁹ Under these circumstances, the dividing line between agonistic festival and all-out fight must have been a very thin one, if it existed at all. Whether ceremonially contending for the treasure contained in the "head of the sacrifice" or plainly fighting each other for the resources of day-to-day life—cattle, pastures, and water—the two parties, like the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas in the great epic, needed each other for the agonistic exchange in which life could only be rewon out of the other's death.