Ashvamedha
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The Ashvamedha (अश्वमेध "horse sacrifice") is one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described in detail in the Yajurveda (TS 7.1-5, VS 22–25 and the pertaining commentary in the Shatapatha Brahmana). The Rigveda does have descriptions of horse sacrifice, notably in hymns RV 1.162-163, but does not allude to the full ritual according to the Yajurveda.
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[edit] The Vedic sacrifice
The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a king (raja). Its object was the acquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouring provinces, and general prosperity of the kingdom.
The horse to be sacrificed must be a stallion, more than 24, but less than 100 years old. The horse is sprinkled with water, and the Adhvaryu and the sacrificer whisper mantras into its ear. Anyone who should stop the horse is ritually cursed, and a dog is killed symbolic of the punishment for the sinners. The horse is then set loose towards the North-East, to roam around wherever it chooses, for the period of one year (or half a year, according to some commentators). The horse is associated with the Sun, and its yearly course. If the horse wanders into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, they must be subjugated. The wandering horse is attended by a hundred young men, sons of princes or high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from all dangers and inconvenience. During the absence of the horse, an uninterrupted series of ceremonies is performed in the sacrificer's home.
After the return of the horse, more ceremonies are performed. The horse is yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses, and RV 1.6.1,2 (YV VSM 23.5,6) is recited. The horse is then driven into water and bathed. After this, it is anointed with ghee by the chief queen and two other royal consorts. The chief queen anoints the fore-quarters, and the others the barrel and the hind-quarters. They also embellish the horse's head, neck, and tail with golden ornaments. The sacrificer offers the horse the remains of the night's oblation of grain.
After this, the horse, a hornless he-goat, a wild ox (go-mrga, Bos gavaeus) are bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire, and seventeen other animals are attached to the horse. A great number of animals, both tame and wild, are tied to other stakes, according to a commentator 609 in total (YV 24 consists of an exact enumeration).
Then the horse is slaughtered (YV VSM 23.15, tr. Griffith)
- Steed, from thy body, of thyself, sacrifice and accept thyself.
- Thy greatness can be gained by none but thee.
The chief queen ritually calls on the king's fellow wives for pity. The queens walk around the dead horse reciting mantras. The chief queen then has to mimic copulation with the dead horse, while the other queens ritually utter obscenities.
On the next morning, the priests raise the queen from the place where she has spent the night with the horse. With the Dadhikra verse (RV 4.39.6, YV VSM 23.32), a verse used as a purifier after obscene language.
The three queens with a hundred golden, silver and copper needles indicate the lines on the horse's body along which it will be dissected. The horse is dissected, and its flesh roasted. Various parts are offered to a host of deities and personified concepts with cries of svaha "all-hail". The Ashvastuti or Eulogy of the Horse follows (RV 1.162, YV VSM 24.24–45), concluding with:
- May this Steed bring us all-sustaining riches, wealth in good kine, good horses, manly offspring
- Freedom from sin may Aditi vouchsafe us: the Steed with our oblations gain us lordship!
The priests performing the sacrifice were recompensed with a part of the booty won during the wandering of the horse. According to a commentator, the spoils from the east was given to the Hotar, while the Adhvaryu a maiden (a daughter of the sacrificer) and the sacrificer's fourth wife.
A historically documented performance of the Ashvamedha is during the reign of Samudragupta I (d. 380), the father of Chandragupta II. Special coins were minted to commemorate the Ashvamedha and the king took on the title of Maharajadhiraja after successful completion of the sacrifice.
There were couple of later instances. One was performed by Raja of Kannauj in the 12th century, unsuccessfully, as Prithviraj Chauhan thwarted his attempt and later married his daughter. The last known instance seems to be in 1716 CE,by Jaya Singh II, a prince of Jaipur [1]
[edit] Sanskrit Epics
The Ashvamedha is described in the epics Ramayana (1.10–15) and Mahabharata.
In the Mahabharata, the sacrifice is performed by Yudhishtira (Book 14), his brothers guarding the horse as it roamed into neighbouring kingdoms. Arjuna defeats all challengers. The Mahabharata says that the Ashvamedha as performed by Yudhishtira adhered to the letter of the Vedic prescriptions. After the horse was cut into parts, Draupadi lies beside the slain animal (14.89). [citation needed]
In the Ramayana, Rama's father Dasharatha performs the Ashvamedha, which is described in the bala kanda (book 1) of the poem. The Ramayana provides far more detail than the Mahabharata. Again it is stated that the ritual was performed in strict compliance with Vedic prescriptions (1.14.10). Dasaratha's chief wife Kausalya circumambulates the horse and ritually pierces its flesh (1.14.33). Then "Queen Kausalya desiring the results of ritual disconcertedly resided one night with that horse that flew away like a bird." [1-14-34].[2] At the conclusion of the ritual Dasharatha symbolically offers his other wives to the presiding priests, who return them in exchange for expensive gifts (1.14.35).[3]
The ritual is performed again towards the end of the poem, but in very different circumstances. It figures centrally in the uttara kanda (book 7) where it leads to the final major story in the poem. In this narrative, Rama was married to a single wife, Sita, who at the time was not with him, having been excluded from Rama's capital of Ayodhya. She was therefore represented by a statue for the queen's ceremony (7.x[citation needed]). Sita was living in Valmiki's forest ashram with her twin children by Rama, Lava and Kusha, whose birth was unknown to Rama. In its wanderings, the horse, accompanied by an army and the monkey-king Hanuman, enters the forest and encounters Lava, who ignores the warning written on the horse's headplate not to hinder its progress. He tethers the horse, and with Kusha challenges the army, which is unable to defeat the brothers. Recognising Rama's sons, Hanuman sends them to Ayodhya where they are reconciled with their father, who also accepts Sita back at court. Sita, however, no longer wishes to live, and is absorbed by the earth. It is never stated whether the sacrifice was completed, but after Sita's death Rama is said to have repeatedly performed the Ashvamedha using the golden statue as a substitute for his wife.[citation needed]
Some historians believe that the bala kanda and uttara kanda were latter interpolations to the authentic form of the Ramayana, due to references to Greek, Parthians and Sakas, dating to no earlier than the 2nd century BCE [4]
[edit] Vedanta and modern Hinduism
In Vedantic interpretations, the Ashvamedha is understood as a ritual to get connected to the "inner Sun". In this tradition, it is said that the ashva of the Ashvamedha originally referred to the Sun, and that sacrifices of actual horses represented a degeneration of the spiritual ritual.
According to the Brahma-vaivarta Purana (Krishna-janma-khanda 185.180),[5] the Ashvamedha is one of five rites forbidden in the Kali Yuga.
[edit] Modern anxieties and criticism concerning the ritual
The mock bestiality and necrophilia involved in the ritual offended the Dalit reformer and framer of the Indian constitution B. R. Ambedkar and is frequently mentioned in his writings as an example of the perceived degradation of Brahmanical culture.[6] This part of the ritual also caused considerable consternation among the scholars first editing the Yajurveda. Griffith (1899) omits verses VSM 23.20–31 (the ritual obscenities), protesting that they are "not reproducible even in the semi-obscurity of a learned European language" (alluding to other instances where he renders explicit scenes in Latin rather than English). A. B. Keith's 1914 translation[7] also omits verses.
In modern times some Indian commentators deny that this passage involved a mock sexual ritual, while others argue that the horse sacrifice itself never actually occurred, but was an allegory. Devi Chand's 1964 translation of the Yajurveda insists (following Swami Dayananda) that the Ashvamedha "does not mean horse sacrifice, but the improvement of land for growing more food."(due to the polysemous meanings of the word 'ashva' as horse as well as fire)[8] The passage above is interpreted as advice to a "learned woman" concerning her duties as a wife.[9]
Subhash Kak, citing the Sanskrit grammarian Patanjali (ca. 2nd century BC) and Panini (ca. 4th century BC), says that the diminutive ashvaka may also apply to toy horses. Thus Kak suggests that the queen lay down with a toy horse rather than with the slaughtered stallion.[10]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 103
- ^ Translation by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy
- ^ Online version of the Ramayana in Sanskrit and English
- ^ The cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV, The Religions, The Ramakrishna Mission, Institute of Culture
- ^ Quoted in Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, A.C. (1975). Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. Retrieved on 2006-07-31.
- ^ B.R. Ambedkar, Revolution and Conter-Revolution in Ancient India
- ^ Keith, Arthur Berridale (trans), The Veda of the black Yajus school entitled Taittiriya sanhita, Oxford, 1914, pp. 615-16
- ^ Chand, Devi, The Yajurveda, Sanskrit text with English translation, 2004 reprint, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, p. 365
- ^ Chand, op. cit., pp. 419-20
- ^ Kak, Subhash. Some Things Don't Square Up. Retrieved on 2006-07-31.
[edit] References
- Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith, The Texts of the White Yajurveda. Translated with a Popular Commentary (1899).
- Ramavarapu Krishnamurti Shastri (trans.), Krishna Yajurvedeeya Taittiriya Samhita, Book VII, The Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams, Tirumala Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh (2003).
- Dasaradhi Rangacharya,'Srimad-Andhra Vachana Shukla Yajurveda Samhita' (White Yajurveda Samhita in Telugu), Emesco Books, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh (1999)
