IMAGINATION, RITUAL, POLITICAL DEVICES

Author(s): Charles Malamoud

Source: Rivista degli studi orientali , 2008, Nuova Serie, Vol. 81, Fasc. 1/4 (2008), pp. 27-
34
Published by: Sapienza - Universita di Roma

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41913332

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 IMAGINATION, RITUAL, POLITICAL DEVICES*

Charles Malamoud

This paper deals with some aspects of samkalpa and mãyã as both
components of imagination. Imagination is not just fantasy. It is also
of what one expects, wishes or fears and the anticipation of the resu
dertakes. As such, imagination has a crucial role both in the ritual an
and means that constitutes the king's artha.

i. Imagination, a mythological character

Mitragupta, turn
turncomes
comestototellonethetellkingof Rãjavãhana
the the king
the heroes
story ofRãjavãhana of Dandin's
his wanderings, re- the Dasakumãracanta story of his wanderings, , when his re-
calls how he had to face a very ugly and powerful demon, a brahmarãksasa,
who threatened to devour him if he would not find the right answers to a list
of four questions. The demon's questions and Mitragupta's answers are com-
bined in a nice stanza: «What is cruel? A woman's heart. What brings happi-
ness and success to a householder? His wife's virtues. What is love? Imagi-
nation. What is the means to achieve an extremely difficult task? Wisdom».1
Mitragupta illustrates each answer by an example, the life story of a woman.
The idea that love is imagination is proved by what happened to Ratnavatï.
It is rather elliptic. We understand that her wedding night with her husband
Balabhadra was a failure, so that her husband disliked her and since then
stayed away from her. Ratnavatï puts the blame on herself and, full of shame
and sorrow, looks for a device to win her husband's affection. It so happens
that she has a dear friend, Kanakavatï, who resembles her very much. Rat-
navatï takes the appearence of Kanakavatï and manages to be seen by Bal-
abhadra who, mistaking her for Kanakavatï, falls in love with her at first
glance and takes her off. They both move to another town and live for some
time a very pleasant life. Eventually some circumstances compeli Ratnavatï
to tell the truth to Balabhadra: surprisingly enough, by doing so she becomes
exceedingly dear ( ativallabhã ) to him (shall we understand that he doubly en-
joys her?) since while knowing that the woman he loves is Ratnavatï (that
very Ratnavatï who had the reputation once of being so bitter that she was

* A first version of this paper was presented at the International Conference «The Imagination of
the Political and the Politics of Imagination», University of Hyderabad and the Einstein Forum, Febru-
ary 22-28, 2009. 1 read it after having heard Professor David Shulman s contribution: «The King who fell
in Love with Ms. Imagination: Ratnakheta Snnivãsa Dïksita's Bhãvanã-purusottama» .
1 kim kruram stnhrdayam kim grhinah priyahitaya daragunah
kah kãmah samkalpah kim duskarasãdhanam prajnã (ed. Kale, p. 156).

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 28 CHARLES MALAMOUD [2]

nicknamed Nimbavatï!) he keeps i

Therefore it is correct to say that
The word I translate by «imagina
is just one of the meanings of sam
imagination. In this passage of th
the commentaries where samk
samkalpa by «resoluteness of purp
ness of purpose» would refer to R
if we consider that samkalpa he
mind: what started for him as an illusion becomes a mental construction.
Therefore I think that O. Böhtlingk's translation «Einbildung» is appropriate.3
A synonym of samkalpa is bhãvanã. David Shulman invites us to meet a Ms.
Bhãvanã, Ms. Imagination, a character in a drama by Srïnivâsa DIksita. Well,
I would like to introduce another member of the family, Mr. Samkalpa, a very
remote ancestor of Ms. Bhãvanã. We know him from the hymn xi, 8 of the
Atharvavedasamhitã. I quote Whitney's translation: «When fury ( manyu )
brought his wife from the house of contrivance (samkalpa), who were the
groomsmen (janya )? who the wooers (vara)? who also the chief wooer?».4 This
is the first stanza. The answers to these questions are given in stanzas 2 and 3.
In stanza 4 we learn that all these people «verily brought design (akuti)». Äku-
tï then is Samkalpa's daughter. Manyu is fury, but in the Veda it is also the ag-
gressive form of the Creator's impetus when he wants to create. According to
Sãyana, the theme of this hymn is the creator's desire to «become many»: his
desire ( kãma ) hardens up and becomes ãkuti, intention. Actually the Creator s
urge to create is embodied in three related characters: Samkalpa; his daughter
Akuti; his son in law, Manyu, a divinised form of «mind» (manas). The wed-
ding of Manyu with Samkalpa's daughter recalls the close association of man-
as with samkalpa in the ritual: when a man intends to offer the solemn sacri-
fice called agnistoma, he must announce his intention and promise to perform
this very rite precisely with the whole programme of gestures, recitations and
also expenses it involves. This statement is called samkalpa (Baudhãyanasrauta-
sütra li, i).5 The verb sam-klp - means «arrange things so that they hold to-
gether». In everyday language (so to speak!) samkalpa means «desire», «inten-
tion», «resolve». It refers to the capacity of producing images of what one
resolves to accomplish. In the vocabulary of psychology or psychogenesis it
refers to the main activity of manas. It is through samkalpa that manas coordi-
nates the data of the sense organs in order to build mental images; or
samkalpas are these mental images produced by and located in the manas. «Let

2 Kale 1966: 110 (transi.).

3 Böhtlingk 1966: 1.335 (n° 1738). 4 Whitney 1905: 11.647.
Ci. Laland, Henry 1906: in.; Malamoud 2005: 9711. Un samkalpa at the establishing or vedic
sacrificial fires ( agnyãdheya ), Kane 1941: 989; Krick 1982: 51.

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[3] IMAGINATION, RITUAL, POLITICAL DEVICES 29

my manas be made of auspicious samkalpa» (tan me manah s

tu): this is the refrain of Vãjasaneyisamhitã xxxiv 1-6. The s
samkalpa appears clearly in the magic formula the man wh
love in a woman's heart must utter, according to Atharvaved
«the arrow feathered with longing ( ãdhl ), tipped with love ( kã
samkalpa [. . .] let love [kãma again] peirce thee in the heart».6 In
of ritual samkalpa, the project of performing a rite, is both
and the mental image, the anticipation of what is to be perf
spect, samkalpa is not only an utterance, it is also a manifestatio
of manas. In fact, according to the instructions of the Srau
mãna has to utter his samkalpa formula aloud thrice and t
silently, thrice. When recited aloud samkalpa belongs to th
speech; being recited silently, samkalpa reveals its affinity w
associated with vãk, manas makes a mithuna, a pair: as it is o
neuter has the force of the masculine (for instance the neute
is the sexual partner of the feminine rk , stanza): manas and
er carry the sacrifice to the gods' abode.7 In Satapathabrãhmana
that «in the beginning, when there was neither being nor
was there, manas indeed is neither being nor non being. It wish
definite and more substantial self ( niruktataram mürtataram
got the vision of the various sacrificial fires, implements an
were purely mental ( manomaya ), they were mental constru
rites were performed mentally in these mental fires. And n
world, whatever people conceive with their mind (manasã sam
is the work of these initial fires and rites [...]». That means that
ple use material fires to perform material rites, the ritual sa
tal anticipation which comes along with the resolve and pro
tion of this phase of the genesis when everything was men
although endowed with a substantial self, operated with pu
jects. One can see a remnant or an illustration of this primary o
of affairs in the rgvedic story of Trita as it is retold in an
Mahãbhãrata ix 36: Trita fallen in a dried well and unable to
offer a soma sacrifice mentally; he imagines all the implem
samkalpayãm ãsa , he mentally acts as both yajamãna and rt
the gods are satisfied with Trita's mental sacrifice, a sacrif
samkalpa , they come and rescue him. His was an imaginary
sacrifice, in which samkalpa is not just the promise and the
process but the whole of the process itself. Trita's imaginary
to be distinguished from the metaphorical sacrifices in whi
tions, meditations, all sorts of penances are deemed to be t
the material gestures and offerings of the regular procedure

6 Whitney 1905: 1.130.7 Malamoud 2005: 5iff.

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 30 CHARLES MALAMOUD [4]

2. The dharmic background for imagining society

In the civilization of ancient India (at least as we know it from Sansk

social and political utopias are to be found mainly in the descriptio
kinds of human communities: the realm of the perfect king (for in
realm of Atithi, Rama's grandson, in Kâlidâsa's Raghuvamsa, canto
ermitage in the forest - ãsrama , tapovana , dharmãranya - (for inst
sistha's ãsrama to which Dilipa and his wife Sudaksinã pay a visit in
honeymoon trip, in Raghuvamsa canto I). Actually these two kinds
are closely connected: each of them is what makes the other possible
fect prosperity of the realm, what allows us to call it an utopia, rests
fact that ascetics gathered in tapovanas or ãsramas perform rituals a
appropriate mantras. Conversely these ascetics can live a perfect life
powerful and perfect king not only protects but also cherishes them
ally speaking perfect society is characterised by harmony, solidarity
pendance of all the parts of the whole: the king at least can be dee
fect only if all his subjects are perfect each according to his own d
lifestyle. Every single feature of this society is simultaneously the c
consequence and the symbol of the whole. However what is remark
the ãsrama of vãnaprasthas is that features from opposed lifestyles
bined there: it is a gathering of individual ascetics who are there w
family, a kind of village in the wilderness; it is a society, although peopl
have to till the land to subsist since the rule for them is to feed on what na-
ture yields spontaneously. Work is not absent, but it is mainly meant to make
possible and even attractive to the animals of the forest cohabitation and lov-
ing familiarity with humans. Otherwise, or rather at the same time, the in-
habitants are mainly busy with rites: ritual is the core of their social life, which
makes a radical difference with the samnyãsins who have gone away from so-
ciety and renounced performing of rites in so far as it involves for them co-
operation with other people and the usage of implements other than their
own body.
What is the role of imagination in the building of these utopias, that is in
the description of these Utopian societies by the poets? Working out these
utopias does not imply creation of models. It is not a matter of invention.
Models are already there at hand: one finds them in the normative texts of
the Smrti that teach us what are the king's duties and the general rules every-
one has to obey as well as the specific rules one has to follow according to
one's caste and age. Poetic imagination in this context is at work when the
poet figures out the gestures, the feelings, the thoughts involved in the appli-
cation of these principles, and when he presents them as living and subtle il-
lustrations of the universal harmony. But the most genuine feature of utopie
imagination in the description of these perfect societies is that universal hap-

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[5] IMAGINATION, RITUAL, POLITICAL DEVICES 3I

piness and virtue result from the fact that specific lifestyles
to each other without conflict or overlapping, sure enough, b
are moments when boundaries between nature and rite smoo
instance Kumãrasambhava v).8

3. The ways of the world

Now let us come to Kautilya's Arthasãstra. At first glance it is quite the oppo-
site of an utopia. It is not a dystopia either. Still it deals with what the king
should do. Then, what is the difference from the descriptions of the perfect
realm? Life in the forest and wilderness ãsramas of dharmic utopia is the
theme of descriptions encapsulated in narratives; these descriptions refer to
a past, be it mythical or legendary: these events, these situations took place
somewhere once upon a time; utopia in this context is *eu-topia rather than
*ou-topia. In the Arthasãstra , on the contrary, there is practically no narrative
whatever, references to past events are extremely rare. Kautilya does not look
for examples to illustrate his instructions: this is a major difference with
Machiavelli. In the Arthasãstra, verbs are predominantly in the indicative pres-
ent in sentences consisting in maxims or general truths, or in the optative in
sentences stating what the king or his agents should do or what is likely to
happen. All the Arthasãstra is in fact a series of answers to the question: what
are the means the king should use to reach the aim the pursuit of which de-
fines him as a king? At first glance, there is no substantial discrepancy between
the rules of action in the Arthasãstra and the rãjadharma as it is taught in the
texts of Smrti. In fact, there are differences in approach and perspective. The
texts on rãjadharma as well as the Arthasãstra include violence, tricks and de-
ceit as means of government and warfare, but in the rãjadharma these meth-
ods are alluded to in generic terms, whereas in the Arthasãstra they are thor-
oughly described, discussed, qualified. Moreover, some acts of warfare, such
as burning the crops of the enemy, are forbidden in the Smrti ( Mahãbhãrata
Xu 104, 39), allowed in the Arthasãstra (ix 1, 35-36). 9 But the specificity of the
Arthasãstra is that the king is repeatedly referred to as vijigïsu «one who wants
to conquer». There is no limit to his conquest, which means that he is always
in the process of using devices before he reaches the ultimate aim and also
that there are no natural or traditional boundaries to his realm. It is a ksetra
plus all the earth he is able to conquer. It is not just by chance that there are
no details in the Arthasãstra which could give us an idea of the size and loca-
tion of the Kautilyan state. This endless conquest needs no justification. To
conquer what he does not have yet and keep and protect what he has, this is

8 Malamoud 2005 (chapter 8) and 1995 (chapter 4).

9 In Dasakumãracarita, end of the third ucchvãsa (p. 122 or Kale s edition), it is said that the right mo-
ment to attack the ennemies is when his crops are ripe: then, one can destroy them, proceed to musti-
vadha, sasyavadha.

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 32 CHARLES MALAMOUD [6]

the vijigîsu s duty or at least his s

«The earth is inhabited by men [w
is the [secular] goal ( artha).The sc
taining and protecting that eart
( artha-sãstra )».10 This is the real m
the means to reach this goal, actua
domain of lokayãtrã «the way(s) of
«politics». Various derivatives of th
order to be able to practice good n
to acquire vinaya . The correct policy
as errors in nlti result in apa-naya.11
Is there room for imagination in
by lokayãtrã ? Imagination is neve
quite frequently considerations on
not mean that Kautilya does not t
to point out the role of imaginat
the Arthasãstra. The king being a
bears on the means, aspects and p
than on the description of the fin
by itself an aim.
More generally, most of the ch
analyses of what there is, they ar
to occur. Quite often, successive p
tence containing vã «or», «another
options of appropriate respons
samkalpa is the mental visualisati
or rather the king figure out eve
compulsive inventivity to anticipat
the list of means one can use to make the best of them. In the Mudrãrãksasa
- a drama by Visãkhadatta in which one of the main characters is no other
than Cãnakya, another name for Kautilya - the painful effort of the minister
who has to bring off his designs is explicitly compared to the task of a play-
wright when he prepares his plot:12 in both cases buddhi is at work to antici-
pate, therefore to imagine, the reality or the fiction one wants to create.
Now it is clearly stated that there are limits to this exploration. The king is
a mortal. There are two kinds of events in general, more specifically two
kinds of calamities (vy asana): some calamities come as the result of acts of
human agency (mãnusa) and some are caused by fate or divine agency (dai-
va). «Acts of human agency are good policy (naya) or bad policy (apa-naya),
whereas acts of divine agency are good fortune (aya) or misfortune (an-aya);

10 Scharfe 1993: 266. 11 Cf. Arťhašastra i 2, 11; vi 2, 6 and 11.

12 Mudraraksasa iv 3.

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[7] IMAGINATION, RITUAL, POLITICAL DEVICES 33

it is acts of divine and human agency that make the world g

ati ) [...]; what is mãnusa can be thought of (it is dntya),
thought about, it is incalculable ( acintya )».13 Now the king
front of acintya : he is a Hindu king, he performs rites, inclu
( mãyã ), to avert or limit calamities coming from daiva. One c
out having to imagine, to guess or understand the divine
events. It is remarkable and rather surprising in the Indian c
king does not trust astrologers: «the object ( artha ) slips away fr
person who is continuously consulting the stars; for achievin
object itself is the auspicious constellation; what will the stars do?
This passage follows immediatly an enumeration of lãbhavigh
to gain»: among many other psychological weaknesses, t
kãpeksã «regard for the other world» and dharmikatva «pious
fondness for auspicious days and constellations ( mangalãtithi
But while the king refuses to guess the unthinkable, he is fully a
ple (his subjects, his ennemies) need to imagine the super
ready to believe in the reality of the king's mãyã. The wonde
with which the king imagines magical devices meets the credu
he wants to impress. The book xm describes very complicat
imaginative tricks the king uses in the psychological warfar
king wants to show that he is conversant with gods (he prod
ga , X 6, 48; xm 1, 1-6) and other supernatural beings or powers,
knows everything of what people do or intend to do, that he
achieve what is called «elimination of thorns» ( kantakasodh
noticing that the king while using tricks of elaborate deceit in
own fabric is familiar with a large set of occult practices and
which he genuinely believes able to produce effective adbhut
results, such as making one able to fast for one month (xiv
about with shadow and form invisible (xiv 3, 14). Moreover, h
ships the gods he otherwise so cynically manipulates, and eve
the genuine mãyã of the gods he is able to evoke or to conjur
propriate rites, formulas and prayers, taken from the Atharv
This puzzling attitude of the king towards mãyã is related t
ture of mãyã itself, that is, to the double meaning of the w
hand, mãyã is the art, the capacity of creating illusions: im
thought of as real but is not real. It is produced by magics. It con
On the other hand, mãyã is the power to project forms, espe
the ability to change his own appearence at will and to brin
world around him. This capacity is a part of his supernatural
instance is famous for that. His various appearences are gen
tions of himself. No wonder that, as far as etymology is con

13 Arthasastra vi 2, 6-12. 14 Transi. Kangle 1963: 485.

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34 CHARLES MALAMOUD [8]

mãyã can be derived either from a ro

measure in order to build». Actuall
consider that there were origina
merged into the very complex and
Anyway, it requires some imaginat
religion and what is his idea of pow

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