ABSTRACT
In Europe, the scholarly debate on the role of violence in public society is still largely informed by Norbert Elias' seminal work Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation. The civilizing process involves man's increasing tendency to restraint his or her affects. For Elias, this 'courtization of the warriors' was mainly brought about by intensifying state formation and of the increasing interdependence of society at large. During the early Middle Ages the use of violence–Elias would say Angriffslust–was intimately related to the regular raiding practices of free warriors. India has produced more than a fair amount of texts and images which indeed demonstrate a remarkable lack of embarrassment towards extreme violence. Indian state building never really involved the intense conflict between the 'secular' and the 'sacred', as embodied in the historical struggle between State and Church in Latin Europe.
