Conquering the Sun: Sovereignty and Liminality in the Vedic

This paper aims to explore the Vedic mahāvrata rite, or the rite of the so-called ‘Great observance’, as an important turning point in the definition of the late Vedic cosmic taxonomy related to the conception of cosmic sovereignty. According to the scholarly literature, the mahāvrata rite is an annual festival, marking the winter solstice, which takes place on the last but one day of the gavāmayana ritual, or ‘March of the Cows’. It belongs to the sattra typology, a ‘sacrificial session’, which may reflect a pre-śrauta ritual reality, and a sort of clan sodality, according to which all the participants play reciprocally equivalent roles. Moreover, the same rite would represent a means through which a new paradigm of sovereignty was represented: in actual fact a sort of “dynastic chiefdom” was established, that is a large confederation, namely the Kuru realm, whose power was more stable and centralised than previous clan-based societies, with increasing social stratification and specialisation. Furthermore, as a solstice rite, it is combined with a solar mythology, especially with the Vala-myth, which could be well applied to a new cosmic and transcendent ideology of sovereignty. Therefore, the mahāvrata day represents a perfect “liminal” experience: it marks the passage from darkness to light, from death to life. It is not only expression of a mere popular seasonal festival, guarantee of prosperity and wealth, but also contributes to defining a ‘power’ taxonomy, inasmuch as the liminal condition of the vrātya initiation is turned into a sort of paradoxical permanent liminality, by which cosmic sovereignty is established.