The Broken World of Sacrifice by J. C. HeestermanReview by: C. MinkowskiJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1996), pp. 341-344Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/605762 .

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Reviews of Books Reviews of Books

These variables include physical traits of the sculpture, such as variables 46 and 47, as well as iconography, jewelry and dress, hair, placement of the arms and legs, and so forth. In addition, each of the sculptures was carefully measured, using a series of different measurements. All of these data are used in chapter II in order to identify traits (she divides the chapter into a section on iconography, one on measurement, and one on sculptural technique) that can be used to identify classes of

sculpture, primarily as to geographical location, the most gen- eral parameters being central Java and east Java.

Sedyawati's survey includes Ganega images from through- out Java which tend, as with all Javanese art, to break into two

geographical areas and chronological periods. The central Javanese Ganesas date from roughly the eighth century A.D.

up until the early tenth century when, for reasons still not fully understood, the center of Javanese culture shifted, apparently along with the population, to east Java. Sedyawati's study is

specifically about the Ganesa images from two of these east Javanese dynasties, the Kadiri (ca. 1117-1222) and the Sing- hasari (ca. 1222-92). Data in chapter II, however, include all

examples of Ganesa images. One question I have, after this

very elaborate and highly detailed analysis, is how other schol- ars might benefit from the data and from Sedyawati's clas- sifications. The underlying concern here is to what extent the art historian's eye will, literally at a glance, tell him the date and provenance of an image, and to what extent the quantify- ing of this "seeing" will help him and others learn.

The next three chapters (III-V) take the book in a com-

pletely different direction. In them Sedyawati explores in an exhaustive manner the references to Ganesa in the Old Jav- anese inscriptions (chapter III) and literature (of the court, in

chapter IV, and outside the court, in V) of the Kadiri and Sing- hasari periods. This discussion, accompanied by extensive and

highly technical footnotes, is a mine of information and facts. Her translation of the lengthy story of Ganes'a from the Sma- radahana, written at the Kadiri court, brings out one uniquely Javanese way, very un-Indian, in which Ganesa was consid- ered-that of a ferocious warrior.

In chapter VI Sedyawati attempts a reconstruction of soci-

ety during the Kadiri and Singhasari periods, focusing on po- litical and social organization, a chapter that again is full of detailed and revealing information. In this and the previous three chapters, Sedyawati's intention is to use the information in order to elucidate the forms, meanings, and functions of the Ganesa images. Unfortunately, the connections are few and tend to be vague, and Ganega images are not discussed partic- ularly in these chapters. Nevertheless, they stand as valuable sources for scholars of eastern Javanese culture.

Chapter VII is a conclusion that returns us to the images, and is the only place in the book where illustrations are found-five Ganesas from Kadiri and eight from Singhasari. Among the conclusions are that the Kadiri images are more diverse than the Singhasari images, due, she speculates, to the

These variables include physical traits of the sculpture, such as variables 46 and 47, as well as iconography, jewelry and dress, hair, placement of the arms and legs, and so forth. In addition, each of the sculptures was carefully measured, using a series of different measurements. All of these data are used in chapter II in order to identify traits (she divides the chapter into a section on iconography, one on measurement, and one on sculptural technique) that can be used to identify classes of

sculpture, primarily as to geographical location, the most gen- eral parameters being central Java and east Java.

Sedyawati's survey includes Ganega images from through- out Java which tend, as with all Javanese art, to break into two

geographical areas and chronological periods. The central Javanese Ganesas date from roughly the eighth century A.D.

up until the early tenth century when, for reasons still not fully understood, the center of Javanese culture shifted, apparently along with the population, to east Java. Sedyawati's study is

specifically about the Ganesa images from two of these east Javanese dynasties, the Kadiri (ca. 1117-1222) and the Sing- hasari (ca. 1222-92). Data in chapter II, however, include all

examples of Ganesa images. One question I have, after this

very elaborate and highly detailed analysis, is how other schol- ars might benefit from the data and from Sedyawati's clas- sifications. The underlying concern here is to what extent the art historian's eye will, literally at a glance, tell him the date and provenance of an image, and to what extent the quantify- ing of this "seeing" will help him and others learn.

The next three chapters (III-V) take the book in a com-

pletely different direction. In them Sedyawati explores in an exhaustive manner the references to Ganesa in the Old Jav- anese inscriptions (chapter III) and literature (of the court, in

chapter IV, and outside the court, in V) of the Kadiri and Sing- hasari periods. This discussion, accompanied by extensive and

highly technical footnotes, is a mine of information and facts. Her translation of the lengthy story of Ganes'a from the Sma- radahana, written at the Kadiri court, brings out one uniquely Javanese way, very un-Indian, in which Ganesa was consid- ered-that of a ferocious warrior.

In chapter VI Sedyawati attempts a reconstruction of soci-

ety during the Kadiri and Singhasari periods, focusing on po- litical and social organization, a chapter that again is full of detailed and revealing information. In this and the previous three chapters, Sedyawati's intention is to use the information in order to elucidate the forms, meanings, and functions of the Ganesa images. Unfortunately, the connections are few and tend to be vague, and Ganega images are not discussed partic- ularly in these chapters. Nevertheless, they stand as valuable sources for scholars of eastern Javanese culture.

Chapter VII is a conclusion that returns us to the images, and is the only place in the book where illustrations are found-five Ganesas from Kadiri and eight from Singhasari. Among the conclusions are that the Kadiri images are more diverse than the Singhasari images, due, she speculates, to the

governmental center being stronger during the later period, with more centralized control and thus more standardization (which she had detailed above in chapter VI). A second con- clusion is that the fierce forms of Ganesa, often depicted with skulls during the Singhasari period, are related to his "coura-

geous and dreadful figure" as first revealed in the Kadiri-

period poem Smaradahana. The book represents a massive amount of work and data that would have been inaccessible to most Western readers without this excellent English transla- tion, and for which KITLV Press must be thanked.

governmental center being stronger during the later period, with more centralized control and thus more standardization (which she had detailed above in chapter VI). A second con- clusion is that the fierce forms of Ganesa, often depicted with skulls during the Singhasari period, are related to his "coura-

geous and dreadful figure" as first revealed in the Kadiri-

period poem Smaradahana. The book represents a massive amount of work and data that would have been inaccessible to most Western readers without this excellent English transla- tion, and for which KITLV Press must be thanked.

ROBERT L. BROWN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Los ANGELES

ROBERT L. BROWN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Los ANGELES

The Broken World of Sacrifice. By J. C. HEESTERMAN. Chi-

cago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1993. Pp. x + 296. $60 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

Readers of J. C. Heesterman's earlier writings will not be

surprised by the central thesis of this book. The author has

already devoted much work to the reconstruction of a hypothet- ical pre-Vedic sacrificial religion centered around such insolu- ble cultural paradoxes as life and death, giver and receiver, enemy and ally, paradoxes that are played out in a catastrophic cycle of conflict and resolution, loss and gain, sacrificer and victim.

In this important, yet problematic book, H's idea is pre- sented in its fully developed form and stated in generalized terms. Attention is given to the work of other theorists of rit- ual and to non-Indic ritual traditions. Readers may accept all of H's interpretations of particular ritual points, but their main

problem will still be to decide whether the thesis of this work is, in the end, convincing.

The book moves in a cyclical style, advancing the whole thesis in the preface, then again in more detail in the first two

chapters, then again, through the examination of a selection of Vedic Srauta rites, in the remaining chapters. In its first ap- pearance, and at its most concise, H's thesis is this: The pre- history of Vedic religion is one of "sacrifice" being reduced to "ritual." While "sacrifice" is a dualistic, agonistic, competi- tive process, with life and the "goods of life" always at risk, "ritual" is monistic, predictable, even solipsistic-and there- fore divorced from any connection with the great issues of human existence that "sacrifice" constantly confronts. It is the brahmin priesthood that has reformulated the unstable, dan-

gerous, perpetually broken world of "sacrifice" into the stable, well-regulated, monotonous world of "ritual." The reforma- tion of "sacrifice" by brahmin ritualists has entailed conse-

quences that continue to the present, in that it has generated

The Broken World of Sacrifice. By J. C. HEESTERMAN. Chi-

cago: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 1993. Pp. x + 296. $60 (cloth); $24.95 (paper).

Readers of J. C. Heesterman's earlier writings will not be

surprised by the central thesis of this book. The author has

already devoted much work to the reconstruction of a hypothet- ical pre-Vedic sacrificial religion centered around such insolu- ble cultural paradoxes as life and death, giver and receiver, enemy and ally, paradoxes that are played out in a catastrophic cycle of conflict and resolution, loss and gain, sacrificer and victim.

In this important, yet problematic book, H's idea is pre- sented in its fully developed form and stated in generalized terms. Attention is given to the work of other theorists of rit- ual and to non-Indic ritual traditions. Readers may accept all of H's interpretations of particular ritual points, but their main

problem will still be to decide whether the thesis of this work is, in the end, convincing.

The book moves in a cyclical style, advancing the whole thesis in the preface, then again in more detail in the first two

chapters, then again, through the examination of a selection of Vedic Srauta rites, in the remaining chapters. In its first ap- pearance, and at its most concise, H's thesis is this: The pre- history of Vedic religion is one of "sacrifice" being reduced to "ritual." While "sacrifice" is a dualistic, agonistic, competi- tive process, with life and the "goods of life" always at risk, "ritual" is monistic, predictable, even solipsistic-and there- fore divorced from any connection with the great issues of human existence that "sacrifice" constantly confronts. It is the brahmin priesthood that has reformulated the unstable, dan-

gerous, perpetually broken world of "sacrifice" into the stable, well-regulated, monotonous world of "ritual." The reforma- tion of "sacrifice" by brahmin ritualists has entailed conse-

quences that continue to the present, in that it has generated

341 341

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.2 (1996)

the operative ideas of high Sanskritic culture-those of the

transcendent, the internal, the changeless, and the "one." H's intriguing opening claim is developed in two chapters,

one on "Sacrifice," and one on "Ritual." In the first, H sets out a definition of "sacrifice" as comprising three elements: killing, destruction of an offering, and distribution of food. These ele-

ments, especially the last two, are found to be internally incon-

sistent, and this leads H to an examination of the various theories of the origins of sacrifice. For H the domestication of fire is cen- tral to the institution and is related to the domestication of the animals who serve as the victims. He finds the whole realm of "sacrifice" to be a realm of paradoxical conflict, in which sacrificer and victim share the same sort of identity/rivalry rela-

tionship as do the sacrificer and his priests. Conflict becomes H's

fourth, encompassing, element of sacrifice. "Sacrifice has con- flict built in.... It is conflict writ large" (p. 40). This conflict is necessary "to play out the riddle of life and death in ever-

recurring rounds of an ambiguous game of qui perd, gagne" (p. 44). Thus the world of sacrifice is "broken at its very center and forever balances on the brink of collapse" (p. 44).

The second chapter, "Ritual," describes the process whereby "sacrifice" is transformed into "ritual." In brief this is ac-

complished by the reconceptualization of "sacrifice" as unitary, monistic and transcendent. Thus the "ground of contest" is re- moved by visions of equivalencies such as bandhus and nida-

nas, and by the reworking of catastrophic activities into orderly structures. The chariot battle of "sacrifice" is made into a char- iot race whose outcome is predetermined. That chariot race is further reduced by mystic identification to a saman chant, the rathantara. When disorder is removed from sacrifice, the con-

testatory nature of sacrifice is lost. Instead, as "ritual" replaces "sacrifice," a gap is opened up between the orderly world of ritual and the disorderly world of daily life. This is the "axial

breakthrough." As tension and uncertainty are removed from the

ritual realm, the gap between that realm and lived reality be- comes total and unbridgeable. Any attempts to make the two realms connect must fail. Instead, the unavoidable direction of

the development of Vedic ritual is toward the more transcen-

dental, interiorized, and static. The axial breakthrough is not, H

finds, limited to Indian religion, but has occurred also in early Iranian religion, Judaism, Christianity, and in Chinese religions.

H's explanation of the process of the reconceptualization of ritual discloses a crucial presupposition of his method, which is this: reconceptualization has already taken place by the time of the Yajurveda Samhitds and Brdhmanas. No extant text en-

joins a "sacrifice." Extant texts enjoin only "rituals." The bro-

ken, pre-Vedic world of sacrifice can only be known through reconstruction. Reconstruction proceeds from an examination of what is paradoxical and contradictory in particular features

of the extant ritual. Thus inconsistencies uncovered in the rit-

ual culture serve as evidence of two things-of the reality of

the pre-Vedic contestatory world of sacrifice, and of the im-

perfect nature of the brahminical reconceptualization of that world. In the later chapters of the book, therefore, H investi-

gates a selection of rites and complexes of rites which demon- strate these two points.

To begin with, in the third chapter, on "The Cult of the

Fire," H finds that the agnyadheya, the ritual of establishing the srauta fires, is "not a self-evident age-old institution com-

ing out of prehistoric limbo but a refractory problem created

by the ritualists and calling for the full deployment of their ratiocinative art" (p. 97). The agnyadheya presents this prob- lem because of its intermediate position between srauta and

grhya, that is, between individual and communal religion. The odana meal represents the original communal meal of "sacri-

fice," which has been displaced and reused in the ritualist's

agnyadheya, but which cannot be removed, hence the paradox of a communal meal in an individualist rite.

The fourth chapter, on "The Periodicity and Mobility of the Fire," continues the analysis of the agnyadheya. H posits a set of "submerged oppositions" concerning fire-controlled/

wild, integrated/dispersed, manifest/vanished, mobile/fixed- that are played out in the rites of renewal and dispersal, re-

generation and reintegration found in such ritual acts as the collection of the sarnbhdras, the praydjas, and so on. The most

important "submerged opposition," however, is that of own/ other's. Various acts are adduced to argue that the agnyddheya indicates a pre-ritual situation where the fire for sacrifice, and

along with it cows and wealth, were to be stolen from a rival sacrificer. A comparison with the Iranian fire cult is continued in this chapter, with an evaluation of the differing transforma- tions of ritual in the two traditions. H concludes that in Iran the "Zoroastrian's fire transcended man; Vedic ritualism, however,

taught man to transcend the fire" (p. 141). The fifth chapter examines the relationship of "Priest and

Sacrificer." H argues that there was no hereditary sacralized

priesthood in Indo-Iranian "sacrifice," and that the priestly roles found in Vedic srauta ritual can be read as the devolutions of what were once rival sacrificers. The brahmdn priest's relation-

ship to brdhman is laid out in terms of eating, so that the idd or sacrificial meal is seen as a vestige of the way of transferring the violence of the sacrifice to contending sacrificers.

The sixth chapter, "The Consecrated," continues this con-

sideration of the personnel who perform the sacrifice/ritual,

focusing on the diksita, the consecrated sacrificer-to-be. H finds parallels between the diksita and the brahmacdri, the

sattrin, and the vratya. The theme of self-sacrifice is shown to be central to the figure of the yajamdna/diksita, a figure homol-

ogized with King Soma, the deity in the Soma sacrifice who is

worshipped both as its patron and as its victim. The theme of

violence and its deflection to others that H develops here rein-

forces for him his general theory of the changing status of

participants in sacrifice-now warrior, now priest-a status

frozen in the later, classicized ritual.

342

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Reviews of Books

In the seventh chapter, H continues his investigation of "The Sacrificial Meal." He argues that even the odana and other vegetarian meals in the extant ritual show the traces of an earlier situation where the meal involved killing, and the

communality of the meal shared out its violence. The ritual reformulation of the communal meal "dismembers the once- coherent pattern but preserves its broken pieces in a new artificial construction that no longer is related to the surround-

ing world but on the contrary transcends it" (p. 209). The epilogue shows how the transition from "sacrifice" to

"ritual" results in the interiorization of "ritual," the production of the notion of the atman as static and transcendent, and the

discovery that "man is himself the nexus of the irreducible contradiction" (p. 222). The book includes more than sixty pages of endnotes and an index of topics.

What will readers make of this highly idiosyncratic work? How will they react to its method and its conclusions? As dis- cussed above, the presupposition of the method is the pos- sibility of reconstructing a lost world through uncovering "submerged oppositions" in the extant ritual texts. H is not

overly concerned with following an empirical method; cer-

tainly he does not marshal every possible supporting fact.

Instead, H selects his evidence, and induces his often com-

pelling ideas from the selection. The book, more elegantly written than any recent book on Indian religion, is, in this

sense, an intuitive work. But this is not to say that the book is dilettantish; nor is it a superficial reading of Vedic ritual texts. On the contrary, H proceeds in an intuitive manner exactly be- cause his knowledge of the Vedic ritual is so well established. On the facts and their primary interpretation he is sometimes

oddly selective, but rarely wrong. We are confronted in many places with brilliant insights into ritual particulars and their interconnectedness. Really, no one has ever done better than H at this. The misfortune is that each of these brilliant in-

sights is, as it were, dragged up the side of an ideological vol- cano and sacrificed whole to the angry, catastrophic god of H's

grand theory. And what of this theory? H's intuition about Vedic ritual and

its history is surely right at least to this extent: he is right that

existing general theories of ritual and sacrifice are at best inept in accounting for Vedic srauta ritual. He is right that the rituals as we have them expressed in the "classical" Vedic texts, the

Yajurveda Samhitas and Brahmanas, have undergone complete reformulation in their particulars and in their grand concep- tion. He is right that the evidence for this process of reformu- lation is embedded in the inconsistencies and paradoxes found in the extant ritual literature. He is right that his evidence points to conflict and contest as constitutive of the religious milieu of the Vedas.

But must all conflict and contest be relegated to a lost period of pre-history? Can we not see the process of reformu- lation of Vedic religion as itself the locus of contest? As for

the hypothetical proto-Vedic situation, what exactly are we to

imagine this situation to be? This reviewer is not at all certain. H's language is evocative rather than descriptive. It is hard to believe that we are to imagine rival "sacrificers" charging one another in chariots, wielding weapons with one hand and mak-

ing offerings in a contested ritual fire with the other. Can this

really be what H intends? What historical period does the "world of sacrifice" belong to? And why is the pre-classical Vedic text par excellence, the Rgveda, which one would expect to give the best evidence about the pre-"ritual" situation, accorded such minimal coverage?

The Broken World of Sacrifice is more conversant than most recent works on Indian religion with contemporary methods of

interpretation. The book is both structuralist and, in its own

way, post-structuralist. It carries out a kind of deconstruction. It usefully brings to bear Huizinga's play theory and other theo- retical models. In light of this contemporary literacy, it is all the more surprising how little interest H displays in situating the Vedic and pre-Vedic religious culture that he hypothesizes in a social-historical context. The reader will wonder what ex- ternal factors, if any, play a part in the transformation from "sacrifice" to "ritual." If "sacrifice" and "ritual" and the "axial

breakthrough" are all found in non-Indic religions, then how is the grand theory to be integrated with extra-religious historical realities?

One thing is clear from the book and that is H's acquired distaste for the system of Vedic ritual as against his world of sacrifice. Vedic ritual is always characterized in the book as static, as over-controlled, and as disconnected from real life. At its best it shows off the powers of the brahmins' "ratioci- native art." In short it is a disappointment to H. Indeed, Vedic ritual, with its endless particularistic complexities, is hard to love. It does not readily lend itself to grand theories. Since the

days of the upanisadic rsis, in fact, to theorize about the ritu- als has meant to interiorize and finally to abandon them. Over the years many have wished the whole world of srauta ritual

away. But what does it portend for the field of Vedic studies when one of its best thinkers, after a lifetime of careful, pains- taking scholarship, does so?

The Broken World of Sacrifice will be appreciated by an ed- ucated general readership for its elegant style and intellectual

scope, and for its provocative and original ideas. Because of its method, however, its importance is likely to be minimized by specialists. But perhaps what is written in an evocative, sug- gestive manner should be taken as such. Rather than trying too hard to imagine a specific picture of the pre-Vedic past, we

might instead use this book as a guide to "re-imagining" the

history of the religious cultures that are linked to Vedic texts. After all the historiography of Vedic religion has itself entered a new period of contest. Taking a position that is at odds with neo-Vedist reductionism, H has given us a way of seeing the

complexity of the gradual process of reconceptualization that

343

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Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.2 (1996) Journal of the American Oriental Society 116.2 (1996)

took place in Vedic ritual. He has also given us a way of seeing theological sensibility that the authors of the Vedic texts might one culture's boundless ingenuity in both confronting and have possessed. Brian Smith's Veda, on the other hand, is a

avoiding the great paradoxes of the human condition. massive sociological tract largely decipherable through proper understanding of the Vedic authors' poetic, literary, and theo-

C. MINKOWSKI logical sensibilities. Heesterman reads Vedic myth as thinly CORNELL UNIVERSITY veiled history, Brian Smith as thinly veiled sociology. Both

studies are, however, strongly influenced by the idea that vio- lence lies at the root of their subject: physical, sacrificial vio- lence in Heesterman's case ("anthropophagy cannot be ruled out" [p. 176]), and the violence of word, ideology, and class

oppression in Brian Smith's case ("the vis or 'masses' are re-

Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System garded as the special delicacy of the Kshatriyas" [p. 47]). Hees- and the Origins of Caste. By BRIAN K. SMITH. New York: terman's Veda seems guided by the intoxicating aroma of roast OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1994. Pp. 408. beef, Brian Smith's by the insatiable quest for status and power.

Nevertheless, class and sacrifice commingle closely in the Veda, The next time you run into a neo-Hindu chauvinist-say on as both Heesterman and Brian Smith are fully aware. So there

a train between Varanasi and Lucknow, or at a health food is a complementarity in their work, even if neither would claim store in New Mexico-who delivers an impromptu (and un- bandhutd with the other. wanted) lecture on the unity of all the peoples of ancient India B.K.S.'s chapters revolve around classifications of society, the and the absence of the evil of the caste system in the Vedas, gods, space, time, flora, fauna, and revelation. For much of this

you can come prepared to beat this benighted perpetrator of he depends on thirteen extended cosmogonies presented in vari- bliss and harmony into submission with a copy of Brian K. ous ritual texts, including the Aitareya, Kausitaki, Satapatha, Smith's Classifying the Universe. For B.K.S.'s primary conten- Paicavimsa, and Jaiminiya brahmanas, the Tattiriya, Mai- tion, which he pursues relentlessly, is that not only was the trayani, and Kdthaka samhitas, and the Maitrayani Upanisad. varna system thoroughly in effect in the "Vedic Age," but it Classifying society means the assignation of abstract qualities served, at least in the Vedas, as the primary means of organiz- to the various varnas and the establishment of a fixed order of

ing and thinking about nearly everything imaginable. Varna authority. The gods also have their varnas, though they were not

was, he contends, "a totalistic classificatory system" (p. 8). If always fixed. For example, Agni, Brhaspati, Vac, and Mitra

your idealistic rival can find any chink in your armor, it is were brahmanas; Varuna, Rudra, Vayu, Yama, and Visnu were that B.K.S. admits: "My study is about representations and their ksatriyas; multiple deities such as the Vigve Devas, Adityas, persuasiveness, and not about historical, social, economic, and Maruts, Vasus, and Rbhus were vaigyas or gudras; Savitr and

political realities per se" (p. 11). But he seals this breach Soma could be either brahmanas or ksatriyas; Sarasvati could

quickly by demonstrating that ideologies, categories, and tax- be either brahmana or vaisya; and Prajapati could be of any onomies reflect and encourage their material contexts. In addi- varna. It is important to note that vaigyas and gsidras are almost

tion, despite the above statement, he strongly and consistently never distinguished: vis includes both vamas. The classification

argues that social realities, at least, were indeed reflected in of space encompasses the three characteristic regions: earth the ideology of varna. The present book, he says, "concerns (brahmana), atmosphere (ksatriya), and sky (vaigya); as well the ways in which a social hierarchy was integrated into-and as the four primary directions: east (brahmana), south (ksa- therefore ratified and legitimated by-a categorical system with triya), west (vaigya), and north (varying images, but tending universal scope and persuasive power" (p. 3). More generally, towards gudra). For classificatory purposes, time was broken

accepting as support Dumezil's tripartite division of religion into the seasons and the parts of the day. Among the seasons, and society, B.K.S. advocates that religious discourse can be spring was a brahmana, summer a ksatriya, the rainy season reduced to its social bases. and autumn were vaisyas, the winter and cool seasons were

I began this book shortly after completing J. C. Heester- indeterminate, but tended toward gsidra. Among the parts of man's Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay in Ancient Indian the day, the morning was brahmana, the midday ksatriya, and

Ritual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993; see my re- the afternoon vaisya. Among flora, trees were especially sub-

view in Journal of Ritual Studies 9.2 [1996], as well as the pre- ject to varna classification. For example, the paldsa was brah-

ceding review, by C. Minkowski). At first it appeared that Brian mana, the banyan and khadira ksatriya, and the pipal (usually) Smith and Heesterman had read two entirely different Vedas, and udumbara vaigya. Among fauna, large domesticated ani-

each with its own scholastic history and secondary literature. mals were subject to varna classification; for example, goat Heesterman's Veda is a historical document, though one that and cow were brahmana, horse and bull ksatriya, cattle, sheep, must be deciphered only by denying any poetic, literary, or and dappled animals vaisya. By revelation, B.K.S. intends the

took place in Vedic ritual. He has also given us a way of seeing theological sensibility that the authors of the Vedic texts might one culture's boundless ingenuity in both confronting and have possessed. Brian Smith's Veda, on the other hand, is a

avoiding the great paradoxes of the human condition. massive sociological tract largely decipherable through proper understanding of the Vedic authors' poetic, literary, and theo-

C. MINKOWSKI logical sensibilities. Heesterman reads Vedic myth as thinly CORNELL UNIVERSITY veiled history, Brian Smith as thinly veiled sociology. Both

studies are, however, strongly influenced by the idea that vio- lence lies at the root of their subject: physical, sacrificial vio- lence in Heesterman's case ("anthropophagy cannot be ruled out" [p. 176]), and the violence of word, ideology, and class

oppression in Brian Smith's case ("the vis or 'masses' are re-

Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varna System garded as the special delicacy of the Kshatriyas" [p. 47]). Hees- and the Origins of Caste. By BRIAN K. SMITH. New York: terman's Veda seems guided by the intoxicating aroma of roast OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1994. Pp. 408. beef, Brian Smith's by the insatiable quest for status and power.

Nevertheless, class and sacrifice commingle closely in the Veda, The next time you run into a neo-Hindu chauvinist-say on as both Heesterman and Brian Smith are fully aware. So there

a train between Varanasi and Lucknow, or at a health food is a complementarity in their work, even if neither would claim store in New Mexico-who delivers an impromptu (and un- bandhutd with the other. wanted) lecture on the unity of all the peoples of ancient India B.K.S.'s chapters revolve around classifications of society, the and the absence of the evil of the caste system in the Vedas, gods, space, time, flora, fauna, and revelation. For much of this

you can come prepared to beat this benighted perpetrator of he depends on thirteen extended cosmogonies presented in vari- bliss and harmony into submission with a copy of Brian K. ous ritual texts, including the Aitareya, Kausitaki, Satapatha, Smith's Classifying the Universe. For B.K.S.'s primary conten- Paicavimsa, and Jaiminiya brahmanas, the Tattiriya, Mai- tion, which he pursues relentlessly, is that not only was the trayani, and Kdthaka samhitas, and the Maitrayani Upanisad. varna system thoroughly in effect in the "Vedic Age," but it Classifying society means the assignation of abstract qualities served, at least in the Vedas, as the primary means of organiz- to the various varnas and the establishment of a fixed order of

ing and thinking about nearly everything imaginable. Varna authority. The gods also have their varnas, though they were not

was, he contends, "a totalistic classificatory system" (p. 8). If always fixed. For example, Agni, Brhaspati, Vac, and Mitra

your idealistic rival can find any chink in your armor, it is were brahmanas; Varuna, Rudra, Vayu, Yama, and Visnu were that B.K.S. admits: "My study is about representations and their ksatriyas; multiple deities such as the Vigve Devas, Adityas, persuasiveness, and not about historical, social, economic, and Maruts, Vasus, and Rbhus were vaigyas or gudras; Savitr and

political realities per se" (p. 11). But he seals this breach Soma could be either brahmanas or ksatriyas; Sarasvati could

quickly by demonstrating that ideologies, categories, and tax- be either brahmana or vaisya; and Prajapati could be of any onomies reflect and encourage their material contexts. In addi- varna. It is important to note that vaigyas and gsidras are almost

tion, despite the above statement, he strongly and consistently never distinguished: vis includes both vamas. The classification

argues that social realities, at least, were indeed reflected in of space encompasses the three characteristic regions: earth the ideology of varna. The present book, he says, "concerns (brahmana), atmosphere (ksatriya), and sky (vaigya); as well the ways in which a social hierarchy was integrated into-and as the four primary directions: east (brahmana), south (ksa- therefore ratified and legitimated by-a categorical system with triya), west (vaigya), and north (varying images, but tending universal scope and persuasive power" (p. 3). More generally, towards gudra). For classificatory purposes, time was broken

accepting as support Dumezil's tripartite division of religion into the seasons and the parts of the day. Among the seasons, and society, B.K.S. advocates that religious discourse can be spring was a brahmana, summer a ksatriya, the rainy season reduced to its social bases. and autumn were vaisyas, the winter and cool seasons were

I began this book shortly after completing J. C. Heester- indeterminate, but tended toward gsidra. Among the parts of man's Broken World of Sacrifice: An Essay in Ancient Indian the day, the morning was brahmana, the midday ksatriya, and

Ritual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993; see my re- the afternoon vaisya. Among flora, trees were especially sub-

view in Journal of Ritual Studies 9.2 [1996], as well as the pre- ject to varna classification. For example, the paldsa was brah-

ceding review, by C. Minkowski). At first it appeared that Brian mana, the banyan and khadira ksatriya, and the pipal (usually) Smith and Heesterman had read two entirely different Vedas, and udumbara vaigya. Among fauna, large domesticated ani-

each with its own scholastic history and secondary literature. mals were subject to varna classification; for example, goat Heesterman's Veda is a historical document, though one that and cow were brahmana, horse and bull ksatriya, cattle, sheep, must be deciphered only by denying any poetic, literary, or and dappled animals vaisya. By revelation, B.K.S. intends the

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