The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c8.s2.9

c8.s2.9

It would seem that here we may find the reason for the insertion of the flood story in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, a younger text steeped in the new ritual doctrine. We may then also understand why the violence and devastation of the flood are in the *Śatapath's* telling not only deemphasized but also, insofar as they are implied, totally unconnected with the ritual. For if there were a connection, the destructive violence of the flood would be a recurrent feature of the ever-repeated pattern of the ritual, as, for instance, would be the case if the avabhṛtha were explicitly associated with the deluge, or the maitrāvaruṇī vaśā with the Iḍā cow. The flood story describes a once-and-for-all intrusion of chaos, out of which arises the permanent order of the ritual.