‘br�hman’, enigma and transgression

For ‘br�hman’ as mana, see J. Gonda, Notes on Brahman (Utrecht: J. L. Beyers, 1950), pp.16–18; as enigma, see ibid., pp.57–61, and esp. L. Renou, "Sur la notion de brahman," L’Inde Fondamentale, ed. C. Malamoud (Paris: Hermann, 1978). For the transgressive basis of mana, see L. Makarius, Le Sacr� et la Violation des Interdits (Paris: Payot, 1974), p.311; of the enigma, see C. L�vi-Strauss Anthropologie Structurale, vol. 2 (Paris: Plon, 1973), pp.32–4, with the criticisms of Makarius, Structuralisme ou Ethnologie? (Paris: Anthropos, 1973, pp.16–19. Michael Witzel, "The Case of the Shattered Head," Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, Heft 13/14 (Reinbeck: Verlag fur Orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 1987), pp.363–415, shows how this motif has been retained even in the disputations recounted in the Buddhist J�takas. He, however, stops short at pointing out its (symbolic) identity with the severed head of the (pre-classical) sacrificial victim.