ABSTRACT
The conceptual scheme which frames our discussion of these Indic analyses of the gift defines the excellence of the gift in terms of the donor, the recipient, the ritual, and the gift object. This chapter considers the third criterion: the procedure or etiquette of the gift, which is elaborated in all of the medieval treatises in formal and ritualistic terms. While it is perhaps not surprising that technical and śāstric discourse should be highly attentive to matters of formal behavior, it is nevertheless a key insight of the medieval writers to identify the ritual procedure as an essential feature of the gift. The ritual procedure describes the nature of the face-to-face encounter between the donor and the recipient. Gift etiquette is to be considered on equal footing with questions of the donor’s intention and the status of the recipient.
