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ASHVAMEDHA The Ashvamedha, or the 'horse sacrifice,' is one of the most significant rituals of ancient India. The horse in Indian mythology represents the sun, and the sea is taken to be its stable and its birthplace, since it emerges every day from the primal 'waters' surrounding Earth. The Ashvamedha is the sacrifice of the annual renewal of the sun at the New Year and that of the accompanying renewal of the king's rule. At the spiritual level, the celebration evokes a reconnection to the 'inner sun.' This rite is a great state function in which ritual elements are woven together with secular ceremonies to create an assertion of monarchical authority.
The use of the word 'sacrifice,' with its common meaning of 'killing to offer to God or gods,' is cause of much misunderstanding of the Vedic ritual. Vedic yajña (sacrifice) need not involve any killing of animals. It is a highly symbolic performance, and the animals of the sacrifice may be clay images or grains, specific utterances, or a sacred song. When an animal is sacrificed in the ritual, the sacrifice is a mock killing within sacred theater. The word 'killing' is described in the texts to apply equally to the pressing of the soma stalks and the grinding of the grain. This is not to say that 'animal' sacrifice has never been taken literally in India, but that the normative meaning of the term is symbolic.
The Vedic rites were meant to help the participant transform himself. This was accomplished through sacrifice. The rishis (Hindu sages) saw the universe as going through unceasing change in a cycle of birth and death, potentially free yet, paradoxically, governed by order. This order was reflected in the bandhu (connections) between the planets, the elements of the body, and the mind. At the deepest level, the whole universe was bound to, and reflected in, the individual consciousness.
The place of sacrifice represents the cosmos, and its three fires stand for the three divisions of space. The course of the sacrifice represents the year, and all such ritual becomes a part of continuing annual performances. The rite culminates in the ritual rebirth of the yajamāna (sacrificer), signifying the regeneration of his universe. It is sacred theater, built upon paradoxes of reality, in which the symbolic deaths of animals and humans, including the yajamāna himself, may be enacted.
The early texts indicate that in sacrifice some people substituted a clay or gold image of the victim. The Atharva Veda says that the inner yajña is superior to the outer one. For some, sacrifice only meant singing a Sāman, which is a song, with its various movements, from the Sāmaveda. The upward and downward movements of the Sāman may be interpreted as having five or seven parts. When divided into five parts, they are called hinkāra, prastāva, udgītha, pratihāra, and nidhana. But these five movements are also the five animals of sacrifice: the hinkāra is a goat, the prastāva a sheep, the udgītha a cow, the pratihāra a horse, and the nidhana a man. The specific identification may be owed to etymological considerations as well as animal traits. Aja, goat, means the unborn; sheep climb up the mountainside; the cow represents prosperity; the horse, speed, appropriate for fast movement; and (the cosmic) man is the objective of the song.
The Ashvamedha is performed by a consecrated king. The horse chosen for the sacrifice is worth a thousandcows. It is black in the forepart, white in the rear, with a mark on its forehead. It is set free to roam, protected by attendants from the four different classes of society. Together with these people, it creates a linkage with the three kinds of beasts: those who live in the air, in the forests, and in villages. The horse has a unique position: it is the sky-bird; it lives in the forest and in the village.
In the beginning, a 'four-eyed dog' (a dog with markings above its eyes) is made to float under the sacrificial horse. The 'four-eyed dog' is Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest light of Canis Major, whose orbit is below (to the south) that of the sun. The ascent of the sun puts an end to the light of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The reference to the thousand cows recalls that the sun's splendor is a thousand times that of Earth, since gauh (cow) also means the planet. The first step of the initiation thus mirrors sunrise.
But how long is the horse supposed to be free? In later enactments of the ritual, the horse roamed for one year. But the Rigvedic and the Shatapatha accounts suggest that the rite took place just over a few days. It appears that the original meaning was to consider the day of the sun as symbolic of its annual circuit.
The texts prescribe that the queen must lie down with the 'dead horse' (ashvaka). This was the time spent with a fire called ashvaka, which represented the sun dead in the sky during the night, preserved in a small fire in a lamp.
There is a threefold drama of change and renewal suggested here. First is the cosmic layer, related to the preservation of order in spite of precession and the stars losing their bearings. Second is the strengthening of the sun in the spring after its weakening in the winter. Third is the mirroring of these processes in the spirit of the sacrificer. The king, by virtue of his authority and responsibility, sees the dangers to his position magnified many times over those faced by the commoner.
It appears that the prototype of this rite required just a few days and was relatively simple. The later pageantry of 101 horses, and hundreds of soldiers and attendants, arose in an embellished version prescribed for kings. Even now, the householder ritual, that consists of a simple fire sacrifice or breath-control, is declared to be thousands of times superior to the Ashvamedha—a comparison that preserves, no doubt, a memory of the times when it was performed more widely.
Subhash Kak
See alsoBrahmanas ; Vedic Aryan India
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heesterman, Jan C. The Broken World of Sacrifice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
Kak, Subhash. The Aśvamedha: The Rite and Its Logic.New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002.
Tripathi, Visvambharanatha. Agnicayana. Varanasi: Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, 1990.
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The Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेधaśvamedhá; 'horsesacrifice') was one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic religion, described indetail in the Yajurveda(TS 7.1-5, VSM 22–25[1] and thepertaining commentary in the Shatapatha Brahmana ŚBM 13.1–5).The Rigveda does havedescriptions of horse sacrifice, notably in hymns RV 1.162-163 (which arethemselves known as aśvamedha), but does not allude tothe full ritual according to the Yajurveda.
Gayatri Pariwar have been organisingperformances of a modernised version of the sacrifice, notinvolving actual animal sacrifice, since 1991.
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The Vedicsacrifice
The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a king (rājā). Its object was theacquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouringprovinces, and general prosperity of the kingdom.
The horse to be sacrificedmust be a stallion, more than 24, but less than 100 years old. Thehorse is sprinkled with water, and the Adhvaryu and thesacrificer whisper mantras into its ear. Anyone who should stop thehorse is ritually cursed, and a dog is killed symbolic of thepunishment for the sinners. The horse is then set loose towards theNorth-East, to roam around wherever it chooses, for the period ofone year (or half a year, according to some commentators). Thehorse is associated with the Sun,and its yearly course. If the horse wanders into neighbouringprovinces hostile to the sacrificer, they must be subjugated. Thewandering horse is attended by a hundred young men, sons of princesor high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from alldangers and inconvenience. During the absence of the horse, anuninterrupted series of ceremonies is performed in the sacrificer'shome.
After the return of the horse, more ceremonies are performed.The horse is yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses, andRV 1.6.1,2 (YV VSM 23.5,6)is recited. The horse is then driven into water and bathed. Afterthis, it is anointed with ghee bythe chief queen and two other royal consorts. The chief queenanoints the fore-quarters, and the others the barrel and thehind-quarters. They also embellish the horse's head, neck, and tailwith golden ornaments. The sacrificer offers the horse the remainsof the night's oblation of grain.
![Ashwamedha 400mb Ashwamedha 400mb](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125849590/639109604.jpg)
After this, the horse, a hornless he-goat, a wild ox (go-mrga, Bosgavaeus) are bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire,and seventeen other animals are attached to the horse. A greatnumber of animals, both tame and wild, are tied to other stakes,according to a commentator 609 in total (YV VSM 24 consists of anexact enumeration).
Then the horse is slaughtered (YV VSM 23.15, tr. Griffith)
- Steed, from thy body, of thyself, sacrifice and acceptthyself.
- Thy greatness can be gained by none but thee.
The chief queen ritually calls on the king's fellow wives forpity. The queens walk around the dead horse reciting mantras. Thechief queen then has to mimic copulation with the dead horse, whilethe other queens ritually utter obscenities.[2]
On the next morning, the priests raise the queen from the placewhere she has spent the night with the horse. With theDadhikra verse (RV 4.39.6, YV VSM 23.32), a verse used asa purifier after obscene language.
The three queens with a hundred golden, silver and copperneedles indicate the lines on the horse's body along which it willbe dissected. The horse is dissected, and its flesh roasted.Various parts are offered to a host of deities and personifiedconcepts with cries of svaha 'all-hail'. TheAshvastuti or Eulogy of the Horse follows (RV 1.162, YVVSM 24.24–45), concluding with:
- May this Steed bring us all-sustaining riches, wealth in goodkine, good horses, manly offspring
- Freedom from sin may Aditivouchsafe us: the Steed with our oblations gain us lordship!
A coin created by Samudragupta I to commemorate theAshvamedha ritual.[3] Thetethered horse is depicted on the left; the queen, carrying ritualequipment, is on the right
The priests performing the sacrifice were recompensed with apart of the booty won during the wandering of the horse. Accordingto a commentator, the spoils from the east were given to the Hotar, whilethe Adhvaryu a maiden (a daughter of thesacrificer) and the sacrificer's fourth wife.
The Shatapatha Brahmana emphasizes theroyal nature of the Ashvamedha:
- Verily, the Asvamedha means royal sway: it is after royal swaythat these strive who guard the horse. (ŚBM 13.1.6.3 trans.Eggeling 1900)
It repeatedly states that 'the Asvamedha is everything' (ŚBM13.4.2.22 trans. Eggeling 1900)
Known historicalperformances
PusyamitraSunga is said to have performed the Ashvamedha rite after hetoppled Mauryan rule in 185 BC.
A historically documented performance of the Ashvamedha isduring the reign of Samudragupta I (d. 380), the father of Chandragupta II. Special coins wereminted to commemorate the Ashvamedha and the king took on the titleof Maharajadhiraja after successful completion of thesacrifice.
There were a few later performances, one by Raja of Kannauj inthe 12th century, unsuccessfully, as PrithvirajChauhan thwarted his attempt and later married his daughter.The last known instance seems to be in 1716 CE, by JaiSingh II of Amber, a prince of Jaipur[4]
Performances in Hinduepics
illustration of the Ramayana by Sahib Din, 1652. Kausalya isdepicted slaying the horse (left) and lying beside it (right)
Performances of the Ashvamedha feature in the epicsRamayana (1.10–15) and Mahabharata.
In the Mahabharata, the sacrifice is performed by Yudhishtira (Book 14), his brothersguarding the horse as it roamed into neighbouring kingdoms. Arjuna defeats all challengers.The Mahabharata says that the Ashvamedha as performed byYudhishtira adhered to the letter of the Vedic prescriptions. Afterthe horse was cut into parts, Draupadi had to sit beside the parts of thehorse[5].
In the Ramayana, Rama's fatherDasharatha performsthe Ashvamedha, which is described in the bala kanda (book1) of the poem. The Ramayana provides far more detail than theMahabharata. The ritual take place for three days preceded by sageRishyasringa andVasista(1.14.41,42). Again it is statedthat the ritual was performed in strict compliance with Vedicprescriptions (1.14.10). Dasaratha's chief wife Kausalya circumambulates the horse andritually pierces its flesh (1.14.33). Then 'Queen Kausalya desiringthe results of ritual disconcertedly resided one night with thathorse that flew away like a bird.' [1-14-34].[6] The fatof the sacrificed horse is then burnt in ritual fire and after thatthe remaining parts of the body with spoons made out of Plakshatree branches(1.14.36,38-39). At the conclusion of the ritualDasharatha symbolically offers his other wives to the presidingpriests, who return them in exchange for expensive gifts (1.14.35).The four sides of the Yagna alter is also donated to priests whohad done the ritual and it is exchanged by them for gold, silver,cows and other gifts(1.15.43-44).[7]
The ritual is performed again towards the end of the poem, butin very different circumstances. It figures centrally in theuttara kanda (book 7) where it leads to the final majorstory in the poem. In this narrative, Rama was married to a singlewife, Sita, who at the time wasnot with him, having been excluded from Rama's capital of Ayodhya. She was thereforerepresented by a statue for the queen's ceremony (7.x). Sita wasliving in Valmiki's forestashram with her twin children by Rama, Lava and Kusha, whose birth was unknown toRama. In its wanderings, the horse, accompanied by an army and Hanuman, enters the forest andencounters Lava, who ignores the warning written on the horse'sheadplate not to hinder its progress. He tethers the horse, andwith Kusha challenges the army, which is unable to defeat thebrothers. Recognising Rama's sons, Hanuman sends them to Ayodhyawhere they are reconciled with their father, who also accepts Sitaback at court. Sita, however, no longer wishes to live, and isabsorbed by the earth. It is never stated whether the sacrifice wascompleted, but after Sita's death Rama is said to have repeatedlyperformed the Ashvamedha using the golden statue as a substitutefor his wife.
Some historians believe that the bala kanda and uttara kandawere latter interpolations to the authentic form of the Ramayana,due to references to Greek, Parthians and Sakas, dating to noearlier than the 2nd century BCE[8]
Indo-European comparison
Many Indo-European branches showevidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggeststhat they derive from a PIE ritual. The Ashvamedha is the clearestevidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditionsallow the reconstruction of a few common attributes.
The Gaulish personal name Epomeduos is from*ek'wo-medhu- 'horse+mead', while ashvamedha iseither from *ek'wo-mad-dho- 'horse+drunk' or*ek'wo-mey-dho- 'horse+strength'. The reconstructed mythinvolves the coupling of a king with a divine mare which producedthe divine twins.Some scholars, including Edgar Polomé, regardthe reconstruciton of a PIE ritual as unjustified due to thedifference between the attested traditions (EIEC s.v. Horse, p.278).
Vedanta andPuranas
The BrhadaranyakaUpanishad (a mystical appendix to the ShatapathaBrahmana and likely the oldest of the Upanishads) has a creation myth whereMṛtyu 'Death' takes the shape of ahorse, and includes an identification of the Ashvamedha with theSun:[9]
- Then he became a horse (ashva), because it swelled(ashvat), and was fit for sacrifice (medhya); andthis is why the horse-sacrifice is called Ashva-medha [...]Therefore the sacrificers offered up the purified horse belongingto Prajapati, (asdedicated) to all the deities. Verily the shining sun [yetapati] is the Asvamedha, and his body is the year; Agni isthe sacrificial fire (arka), and these worlds are hisbodies. These two are the sacrificial fire and theAsvamedha-sacrifice, and they are again one deity, viz. Death.(BrUp 1.2.7. trans. Müller)
The Upanishads describe ascetic austerities asan 'inner Ashvamedha', as opposed to the 'outer' royal ritualperformed in the physical world, in keeping with the generaltendency of Vedanta to moveaway from priestly ritual towards spiritual introspection; verse 6of the Avadhuta Upanishad has:
- 'Through extreme devotion [sam-grahaneṣṭi] he [the ascetic]performs ashvamedha within [anta]. That is the greatestsacrifice [mahā-makha] and the greatestmeditation [mahā-yoga].'
According to the Brahma Vaivarta Purana(185.180),[10] theAshvamedha is one of five rites forbidden in the Kali Yuga.
In Hindurevivalism
In the Arya Samajreform movement of DayanandaSarasvati, the Ashvamedha is considered an allegory or a ritual to get connected to the'inner Sun' (Prana)[11]Dayananda in his Introduction to the commentary on theVedas[12]rejected the classical commentaries of the Vedas by Sayana, Mahidhara and Uvata asmedieval corruptions 'opposed to the real meaning of the Vedas' (p.443) in order to arrive at an entirely symbolic interpretation ofthe ritual: 'An empire is like a horse and the subjects like otherinferior animals' (p. 448). Thus, VSM 23.22, literally 'he beats onthe vulva (gabha), the penis (pasas) oozesrepeatedly (ni-galgaliti) in the receptacle' isinterpreted not in terms of the horse and the queen, but in termsof the king and his subjects, 'The subjects are calledgabha (to be seized), kingly power called pasa(to be penetrated)' (p. 454). This interpretation is apparentlybased on a verse from Shatapatha Brahmana [13].
Following Dayananda, Arya Samaj disputes the very existence ofthe pre-Vedantic ritual; thus Swami Satya PrakashSaraswati claims that
- 'the word in the sense of the Horse Sacrifice does not occur inthe Samhitas [...] In the terms of cosmic analogy, ashvais the Sun. In respect to the adhyatma paksha, thePrajapati-Agni, or the Purusha, the Creator, is the Ashva; He is the same as theVaruna, the Most Supreme. Theword medha stands for homage; it later onbecame synonymous with oblations in rituology, since oblations areoffered, dedicated to the one whom we pay homage. The worddeteriorated further when it came to mean 'slaughter' or'sacrifice'.'[14]
arguing that the animals listed as sacrificial victims are justas symbolic as the list of human victims listed in the Purushamedha[15](which is generally accepted as a purely symbolic sacrifice alreadyin Rigvedic times).
Other commentators accept the existence of the sacrifice butreject the notion that the queen lay down with the dead horse. ThusSubhash Kak in ablog posting suggests that the queen lay down with a toy horserather than with the slaughtered stallion, due to presence of theword Ashvaka, similar to Shivaka meaning 'idol orimage of Shiva'
All WorldGayatri Pariwar since 1991 has organized performances of a'modern version' of the Ashvamedha where a statue is used in placeof a real horse, according to Hinduism Today with a millionparticipants in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh on April 16 to 20,1994.[16] Suchmodern performances are sattvikaYajnas where the animal is worshipped withoutkilling it,[17], thereligious motivation being prayer for overcoming enemies, thefacilitation of child welfare and development, and clearance ofdebt,[18]entirely within the allegorical interpretation of the ritual, andwith no actual sacrifice of any animal, nor any sexualconnotations.
Criticism andcontroversy
The earliest recorded criticism of the ritual comes from the Cārvāka, an atheisticschool of Indian philosophy that assumed various forms ofphilosophical skepticism and religious indifference. A quotation ofthe Cārvāka from Madhavacharya's Sarva-Darsana-Sangrahastates:
“The three authors of theVedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-knownformulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all theobscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha, these wereinvented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents tothe priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded bynight-prowling demons. [19]”The mock bestiality and necrophilia involved in the ritual causedconsiderable consternation among the scholars first editing the Yajurveda. Griffith (1899) omits verses VSM 23.20–31(the ritual obscenities), protesting that they are 'notreproducible even in the semi-obscurity of a learned Europeanlanguage' (alluding to other instances where he renders explicitscenes in Latin rather than English). A. B. Keith's 1914translation also omits verses.[2]
This part of the ritual offended the Dalit reformer andframer of the Indian constitutionB. R. Ambedkarand is frequently mentioned in his writings as an example of theperceived degradation of Brahmanical culture.[20]
See also
Notes andreferences
- ^RalphThomas Hotchkin Griffith, The Texts of the WhiteYajurveda. Translated with a Popular Commentary (1899),1987 reprint: Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, ISBN8121500478.
- ^ abKeith, Arthur Berridale (trans) (1914). The Veda of the Black YajusSchool Entitled Taittiriya Sanhita, Oxford, pp.615-16
- ^Hoernle, August Friedrich Rudolf;Stark, Herbert Alick (1906). A History ofIndia. Cattuck: Orissa Mission Press
. http://books.google.com/books?id=d4MqAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false . - ^Bowker, John, The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, New York,Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 103
- ^Draupadi of great intelligence ... to sit near the divided animal.'Ashvamedha Parva, Section 89 [1]
- ^Translation by DesirajuHanumanta Rao & K. M. K. Murthy
- ^Online version of the Ramayanain Sanskrit and English
- ^The cultural Heritage of India, Vol. IV, The Religions, TheRamakrishna Mission, Institute of Culture
- ^implicitly, in eṣa vā aśvamedho ya eṣa tapati'verily, that Ashvamedha is that which gives out heat[tap-]'
- ^Quoted in Bhaktivedanta SwamiPrabhupada, A.C. (1975). 'Srimad-Bhagavatam'. TheBhaktivedanta Book Trust. http://vedabase.net/sb/5/7/5/en
. Retrieved2006-07-31 . - ^as a bahuvrihi,saptāśva 'having seven horses' is another name of the Sun, referring to the horses of hischariot.; akhandjyoti.org glosses'ashva' as 'the symbol of mobility, valour and strength' and'medha' as 'the symbol of supreme wisdom and intelligence',yielding a meaning of 'ashvamedha' of 'he combination of the valourand strength and illumined power of intellect'
- ^Dayananda Sarasvati, Introduction to thecommentry on the Vedas, Meharchand lachhmandas Publications; 1sted. (1981), Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha; 2nd ed. (1984) [2]
- ^[3] Sh.Br13:2:9:6
- ^The Critical and Cultural Study of the Shatapatha Brahmana bySwami Satya Prakash Saraswati, p. 415
- ^ibid., p. 476
- ^Hinduism Today, June1994
- ^Ashwamedha Yagam incity,The Hindu
- ^Ashwamedhayagnam.org
- ^Madhavacarya, Sarvadarsana-sangraha, English translationby E. B. Cowell and A. E. Gough, 1904 quoted in DebiprasadChattopadhyaya (ed.), Carvaka/Lokayata: An Anthology of SourceMaterials and Some Recent Studies (New Delhi: Indian Councilof Philosophical Research, 1990)
- ^B.R. Ambedkar, Revolution andConter-Revolution in Ancient India