Description

Book Synopsis
In this book, J. C. Heesterman attempts to understand the origins and nature of Vedic sacrificethe complex compound of ritual practices that stood at the center of ancient Indian religion. Paying close attention to anomalous elements within both the Vedic ritual texts, the brahmanas, and the ritual manuals, the srautasutras, Heesterman reconstructs the ideal sacrifice as consisting of four moments: killing, destruction, feasting, and contest. He shows that Vedic sacrifice all but exclusively stressed the offering in the firethe element of destructionat the expense of the other elements. Notably, the contest was radically eliminated. At the same time sacrifice was withdrawn from society to become the sole concern of the individual sacrificer. The ritual turns in on the individual as self-sacrificer who realizes through the internalized knowledge of the ritual the immortal Self. At this point the sacrificial cult of the fire recedes behind doctrine of the atman's transcendence and unit

The Broken World of Sacrifice An Essay in Ancient

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    A Paperback / softback by J. C. Heesterman

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      Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
      Publication Date: 01/07/1993
      ISBN13: 9780226323015, 978-0226323015
      ISBN10: 0226323013
      Also in:
      Further religions and spiritual beliefs

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      In this book, J. C. Heesterman attempts to understand the origins and nature of Vedic sacrificethe complex compound of ritual practices that stood at the center of ancient Indian religion. Paying close attention to anomalous elements within both the Vedic ritual texts, the brahmanas, and the ritual manuals, the srautasutras, Heesterman reconstructs the ideal sacrifice as consisting of four moments: killing, destruction, feasting, and contest. He shows that Vedic sacrifice all but exclusively stressed the offering in the firethe element of destructionat the expense of the other elements. Notably, the contest was radically eliminated. At the same time sacrifice was withdrawn from society to become the sole concern of the individual sacrificer. The ritual turns in on the individual as self-sacrificer who realizes through the internalized knowledge of the ritual the immortal Self. At this point the sacrificial cult of the fire recedes behind doctrine of the atman's transcendence and unit

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