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Contributions to Indian Sociology
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Rejecting violence: Sacrifice and the social identity of trading communities

Lawrence A. Babb

Department of Anthropology/Sociology, Amherst College, Amherst MA 10012, USA

In recent decades Agraval leaders have been promoting a centre for caste pilgrimage at Agroha, the supposed place of Agraval origin, and an associated Agraval origin myth. Analysis reveals that this origin myth belongs to a class of similar origin myths found among North Indian trading castes. The central element in these myths is the ancient rite of sacrifice. The origin myths of the Khandelval Vaisyas. Mahesvaris, and Khandelval Jains all attempt to show how the caste in question acquired its current identity and social persona because of an alienation from the sacrifice, followed by a restoration to the rite on a new basis (or in the case of the Jains, a shift to an alternative ritual order). Variants of the Agraval origin myth being publicised currently are often presented in a context suggesting social and scientific modernity, but underlying contemporary retellings we find the same sacrificial symbolism seen in the myths of other trading castes.

Contributions to Indian Sociology, Vol. 32, No. 2, 387-407 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/006996679803200211
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