The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c9.36

c9.36

In fact, an objective solution is not aimed at. The pivotal concern is the antithetical complementarity. What the kavis, in the words of Ṛgveda 10. 129. 4, found was not objective truth or absolute being (*sat*), separate from nontruth, nonbeing (*asat*), but the connection between the two opposites, the *sáto bándhum ásati*. The antithesis is not an abstract problem to be solved once and for all. It is a concrete contest between opposite parties. In the same way as life and death, being and nonbeing, the parties are locked together in agonistic complementarity. Consequently, the contest must ever be renewed. No objective solution is strived for, but an ever-alternating, personal outcome.