The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c9.15

c9.15

This transition can be further illustrated by the so-called Four-Hotṛ, or *caturhotṛ*, formulas.¹⁹ As they are given in the tests, they are straight identifications of officiants and elements of the ritual with gods and other cosmic entities. These explicit identifications, about which there is not much mystery, which generally are rather predictable in view of similar far from hidden identifications, and which moreover are learned by rote, are nevertheless called "the hidden bráhman of the gods".²⁰