The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c9.33

c9.33

This is elaborately enacted in the rājasūya. The king, seated on his throne and surrounded by the four chief officiants and the office bearers, addresses each of the priests: “O brahmán. To which the priests answer:“Thou, O king, art brahmán.”⁵⁴ The scene recalls exactly the brahmodya in the caturhotṛ formulas at the end of the last day of the ten-day period.⁵⁵ Though we find here no “reviler” or vituperative utterances,⁵⁶ the idea of contest—chariot race, cattle raid, game of dice—is not very far away.