Ashvamedha

Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध, Asvamedha; German: horse sacrifice ) is one of the most important royal rituals of Vedic sacrificial religion. In the older Vedas ( esp. in the Yajur Veda ) many rituals or sacrifices were described, which were offered to the gods to bring certain desires or promise to fulfillment.

Ritual

The Ashvamedha was exclusively reserved for the king sacrifice that stood closely with the claim to power of the current ruler in conjunction. In the Vedas it is mentioned in several places; in the Mahabharata (Book 14), it is described as follows:

The sage Veda Vyasa was the king Yudhishthira come after the battle of Kurukshetra to perform such Ross sacrifices to win his old power back. To this end, a horse was selected that was released on a auspicious day. The army had to follow the animal, where it ran well and fight with anyone who dared to catch the animal and thus challenge the power of the king. Although in this particular case, the victim had an atoning character, had to fight against many strains of the army under the leadership of the great hero Arjuna. Many kings of the land offered Yudhishthira their subjection, others, however, caught the horse and fought with Arjuna. Meanwhile, a square was selected at which the victim should be done. The place was covered with a gold-embroidered cloth and the builders built palaces for the residence of the royal guests. Even for women whose own homes were built. Brahmins and Vaishyas were fed every day until their number had reached one hundred thousand.

When the army returned with the victim horse was the joy of the king size. The horse was killed and sacrificed. Even the women of the royal family lived according to the text at the sacrifice of the horse. The heart of the beast was thrown from the chief priests in the sacrificial fire and Yudhishthira and his brothers breathed in the smell. This should be cleaned their souls and they are free from sin.

Importance

The horse sacrifice ritual was revived hundreds of years later in the Gupta Empire under the reign of King Samudragupta; his grandson Kumaragupta I took - as coinage show - this royal ritual, but which then largely forgotten again. In the 12th century a corresponding ritual by the Raja of Kannauj is mentioned; in 1716 seems to Raja Jai Singh of Amber held the last Ashvamedha to have. Indian nationalists and traditionalists, however, have resumed the theme in 1994 and again organized a horse sacrifice ritual - this, however, only the Pappmascheestatue a horse was sacrificed.

Parallel

William Foxwell Albright Archaeologists and PE Dumont drew a parallel between the Vedic horse sacrifice and the lilissu accompanied by the drum bull sacrifices in Babylonia.

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