Divination and Danger in the Festival of Indra’s Banner

Abstract This article centers on an analysis of the structure of the medieval Hindu festive ritual of “Indra’s Banner” ( indradhvaja ), using the canonical account of the sixth-century astrologer-astronomer Varāhamihira ( Bṛhatsaṃhitā 42). After situating the ritual within the broader calendar of royal ceremonial, as the inauguration of the autumnal war season, it argues for an interpretation centering on two outstanding and related themes: warfare and divination. In its processional structure, the banner itself, as an instantiation of Indra, recapitulates the king’s war-march. Through this worship of Indra, who has been invited into the kingdom as its temporary ruler, the king obtains martial prowess. Meanwhile, the ritual procession forms a divinatory preview of the king’s impending expedition: during its long journey from wilderness to kingdom, the banner is scrutinized for omens portending the king’s failure and other disasters for the kingdom. The article enlarges the relevance of both themes of militarization and divination for our understanding of the medieval Hindu royal cult on the whole. It suggests that divination, in its preoccupation with the social consequences of material failure, formed a crucial perspective from which to recast ritual within the fraught domain of medieval Indian warfare and politics.