The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c7.s2.2

c7.s2.2

Of course, one is entitled to speak with Rönnow of human sacrifice, belonging to a "pre-Vedic," "asuric" religion. It is not my intention to go into the correctness of this terminology. The question I am concerned with is that of the relation between the two conceptions of sacrifice. Briefly, then, it would seem to me that the “Vedic brahmanic” conception originated orthogenetically in the agonistic festival. Rather than “asuric,” the latter might be called “daivāsura”.⁷⁰ Rationalizing away the agonistic element which locked the two parties together, the ritualists were able to break the dualistic pattern of cyclical exchange and make the sacrificer independent from rivalry and cooperation with the others.