The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c8.s1.5

c8.s1.5

But perhaps the flood story, apart from introducing Iḍā, is meant to account in its own right for the ritual. There is a telling parallelism: as a new world arises from the devastation of the deluge, so new life is created out of the destruction of sacrifice. Moreover, as the primeval waters are the basic element in the diluvial cosmogony, so water is prominent in the ritual. Thus the Soma sacrifice begins and ends with a bath. In connection with the final bath (*avabhṛtha*), it is stated that the ocean is the womb (*yoni*) of the sacrifice. At the avabhṛtha, it is said, “One makes the sacrifice go (back) to its own womb”.⁷ The sacrifice, then, arises from the waters and cyclically returns to its aquatic birthplace. One is tempted to think of Manu’s fish, which comes out of the waters and finally, when full-grown, is brought back to the ocean, as an image of the sacrifice. Similarly, there is the recurrent theme of the sacrifice or of the sacrificial fire fleeing from service to gods and men and taking refuge in the waters, only to be found and brought back again.⁸