Ashvamedha

The Ashvamedha (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध, romanized:  aśvamedha)[1] was

a horse sacrifice ritual followed by the Śrauta tradition of Vedic
religion. It was used by ancient Indian kings to prove their imperial
sovereignty: a horse accompanied by the king's warriors would be
released to wander for a year. In the territory traversed by the horse,
any rival could dispute the king's authority by challenging the
warriors accompanying it. After one year, if no enemy had managed
to kill or capture the horse, the animal would be guided back to the
king's capital. It would be then sacrificed, and the king would be
declared as an undisputed sovereign.

The best-known text describing the sacrifice is the Ashvamedhika

Parva (Sanskrit: अश्वमेध पर्व), or the "Book of Horse Sacrifice," the
fourteenth of eighteen books of the Indian epic poem Mahabharata.
Krishna and Vyasa advise King Yudhishthira to perform the
sacrifice, which is described at great length. The book traditionally
comprises 2 sections and 96 chapters.[2][3] The critical edition has
Ashvamedha yajna of Yudhisthira
one sub-book and 92 chapters.[4][5]

The ritual is recorded as being held by many ancient rulers, but

apparently only by two in the last thousand years. The most recent ritual was in 1741, the second one held
by Maharajah Jai Singh II of Jaipur.

Contents
The sacrifice
On Gupta coins
Similar sacrifices elsewhere
List of performers
In Hindu revivalism
Reception
See also
Footnotes
References

The sacrifice
The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a powerful victorious king (rājā).[6][7] Its object was the
acquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouring provinces, seeking progeny and general
prosperity of the kingdom.[8] It was enormously expensive, requiring the participation of hundreds of
individuals, many with specialized skills, and hundreds of
animals, and involving many precisely prescribed rituals at
every stage.[9]

The horse to be sacrificed must be a white stallion with black

spots. The preparations included the construction of a special
"sacrificial house" and a fire altar. Before the horse began its
travels, at a moment chosen by astrologers, there was a
ceremony and small sacrifice in the house, after which the king
had to spend the night with the queen, but avoiding sex.[10]
A 19th-century painting, depicting the
The next day the horse was consecrated with more rituals, preparation of army to follow the sacrificial
tethered to a post, and addressed as a god. It was sprinkled with horse. Probably from a picture story
water, and the Adhvaryu, the priest and the sacrificer whispered depicting Lakshmisa's Jaimini Bharata
mantras into its ear. A "four-eyed" black dog was killed with a
club made of Sidhraka wood, then passed under the horse, and
dragged to the river from which the water sprinkled on the horse had come and set to flow south.[11] The
horse was then set loose towards the north-east, to roam around wherever it chose, for the period of one
year,[12] or half a year, according to some commentators. The horse was associated with the Sun, and its
yearly course.[13] If the horse wandered into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, they were to be
subjugated. The wandering horse was attended by a herd of a hundred geldings, and one or four hundred
young kshatriya men, sons of princes or high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from all
dangers and inconvenience, but never impeding or driving it.[12] The escort had to prevent the stallion from
mating with any mares during its journey, and if he did, an oblation of milk was performed to Vāyu. If the
horse became ill with injury, an oblation of pap to Pūṣan. If he became ill without injury, then an oblation of
cake to Agni Vaiśvānara. If he was afflicted with eye disease, an oblation to Sūrya. If the horse drowned, an
oblation was performed to Varuṇa. If the horse was lost, an oblation of cake, potsherd, and three other
dishes to the deities of heaven and earth, along with an oblation of milk to Vāyu and pap to Sūrya. If the
horse died, then another was selected and consecrated to replace it.[14] During the absence of the horse, an
uninterrupted series of ceremonies was performed in the sacrificer's home. Every day, three Sāvitreṣṭi rites
and one evening Dhṛtihoma would be conducted by the priests. In the evening after the Dhṛtihoma, two
Brahmin and two Kshatriya bards and lutists would praise the patron king's generosity, who gave 4,000
cows and 400 gold coins to the priests on the first day of the sacrifice. Then a session of pariplavākhyāna
took place.[15] The pariplāvana was the cyclical recitation of tales, in which one out of ten topics would be
discussed each night, with 36 cycles of the ten topics.[16] The tales were witnessed by an audience of
onlookers called the upadrāṣṭṛ, who attended in their free time.[17]

After the return of the horse, more ceremonies were performed for a
month before the main sacrifice. Twelve days of dīkṣā rites took
place, and then twelve days of upasad.[18] The dīkṣā rite was a
preparatory consecration rite performed before sacrifices.[19] It
consisted of a preliminary oblation, and then the king would bathe,
dress in black antelope skin, and sit on another skin in a hut in front
of a fire, fasting in silence with a covered head and sleeping on the
ground. The upasad was a multiday ceremony that precedes Soma
sacrifices.[20] It consisted of the acquisition and welcoming of Soma
and the construction of various structures needed for the sacrifice, Depiction of the Asvamedha in
along with the sacrifice of a goat.[21] History of India (1906)

On the twenty-fifth day, the agniṣṭoma was performed.[22] The

agniṣṭoma was the main part of the Soma sacrifice. In the morning pressing, the soma was pressed out and
offered along with "rice cakes, parched barley, flour in sour milk, parched rice, and a hot mixture of milk
and sour milk". During the pressings and oblations, five musical chants were sung and five recitations were
chanted. The priests then partook in the drinking of the soma and the twelve oblations to the seasons, and
the sacrifice of a goat to Agni. The midday pressing was similar and dedicated to Indra, and dakshina was
also distributed on that day to the priests consisting of a varying multitude of cows. At the evening pressing
only two musical chants were sung and two recitations chanted. Then proceeded the conclusory libations to
the "yoking of the bay horses" and the sun, followed by the Avabhṛtha. The Avabhṛtha was the
"unpurificatory" bathing of the sacrificer at the end of the sacrifice. After an antelope skin was put in the
water body, the king, his wife, and the priests ritually bathe.[23][24] Afterwards a sterile cow or eleven other
animals are sacrificed.[24] Throughout the entire night, the annahoma was performed at the Uttaravedi (the
northern altar).[25] It consists of an oblation of clarified butter, fried rice, fried barley, and fried
grain.[26][27][22]

On the twenty-sixth day,[22] the king was ritually purified, and the horse was yoked to a gilded chariot,
together with three other horses, and Rigveda (RV) 1.6.1,2 (YajurVeda (YV) VSM 23.5,6) was recited. The
horse was then driven into water and bathed. After this, it was anointed with ghee by the chief queen and
two other royal consorts. The chief queen (mahiṣī) anointed the fore-quarters, the favorite wife (vāvātā) the
middle, and the discarded wife (parvṛktī) the hindquarters.[28][29] They also embellished the horse's head,
neck, and tail with golden ornaments and 101 or 109 pearls.[18][30] After this, the horse, a hornless black-
necked he-goat, and a Gomṛga were bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire, and seventeen other animals
were attached with ropes to the horse. The he-goat dedicated to Agni was attached to the horse's chest. A
ewe dedicated to Sarasvatī was attached under the horse's mouth. Two black-bellied he-goats dedicated to
the Aśvins were tied to the horse's front legs. A dark grey he-goat dedicated to Soma-Pūṣan was attached
underneath the horse. On the two sides of the horse were attached a black goat to Sūrya and a white goat to
Yama. Two goats with shaggy thighs were dedicated to Tvaṣṭar. A white goat dedicated to Vāyu was
attached to the tail. A cow about to give birth was dedicated to Indra, and a dwarfish cow was dedicated to
Viṣṇu.[31] A great number of animals, both tame and wild, were tied to other stakes, according to one
commentator, 609 in total. The sacrificer offered the horse the remains of the night's oblation of grain. The
horse was then suffocated to death.[12]

The chief queen ritually called on the king's fellow wives for pity.
The queens walked around the dead horse reciting mantras and
obscene dialogue with the priests.[18] The chief queen then had to
spend the night beside the dead horse in a position mimicking sexual
intercourse and was covered with a blanket.[32][18][33][34]

On the next morning, the priests raised the queen from the place.
One priest cut the horse along the "knife-paths" while other priests
started reciting the verses of Vedas, seeking healing and
regeneration for the horse.[35] The horse's epiploon along with soma
are offered in an oblation, and the priests dismember the horse and
other animal victims with an oblation of their blood. On the third
day an Atirātra was performed.[18] The Atirātra was a Soma
sacrifice in which there was a nocturnal session where soma was
drunk.[36] Afterwards an Avabhṛtha takes place.[18] However, in
the Ashvamedha sinners and criminals also take part in the Ashvamedha of Pandavas
purificatory bathing. Afterwards twenty-one sterile cows are
sacrificed, and the dakshina was distributed to the priests. The main
dakshina forms either the four wives of the king or their four hundred attendants.[18]

The Laws of Manu refer to the Ashvamedha (V.53): "The man who offers a horse-sacrifice every day for a
hundred years, and the man who does not eat meat, the two of them reap the same fruit of good deeds."[37]
On Gupta coins
One type of the gold coins of the Gupta Empire kings Samudragupta (reigned c. 350-370 CE) and
Kumaragupta (reigned c. 415-455 CE) commemorates their Ashvamedha sacrifices. The obverse shows the
horse anointed and decorated for sacrifice, standing in front of a Yūpa sacrificial post, and is inscribed "The
king of kings who has performed the Vajimedha sacrifice wins heaven after protecting the earth". The
reverse shows a standing figure of the queen, holding a fan and a towel, and is inscribed "Powerful enough
to perform the Ashvamedha sacrifice".[38]

Samudragupta, The queen, Samudragupta Kumaragupta

Ashvamedha reverse of last
horse

Similar sacrifices elsewhere

Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that
they derive from a Proto-Indo-European ritual. Most appear to be funerary practices associated with burial,
but for some other cultures there is tentative evidence for rituals associated with kingship. The Ashvamedha
is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a
few common attributes.

A similar ritual is found in Celtic tradition in which the king in Ireland conducted a rite of symbolic marriage
with a sacrificed horse.[32] The Roman October Horse sacrifice was an annual event, and apparently the
only time horses were sacrificed, rather than cattle or smaller animals.[39]

Horse sacrifices were performed among the ancient Germans, Armenians, Iranians,[40] Chinese, Greeks,[41]
among others.

List of performers
Sanskrit epics and Puranas mention numerous legendary performances of the horse sacrifice.[42] For
example, according to the Mahabharata, Emperor Bharata performed a hundred Ashvamedha ceremonies
on the banks of Yamuna, three hundred on the banks of Sarasvati and four hundred on the banks of the
Ganga. He again performed a thousand Ashvamedha on different locations and a hundred Rajasuya.[43]
Following the vast empires ruled by the Gupta and Chalukya dynasties, the practice of the sacrifice
diminished remarkably.[6]

The historical performers of Ashvamedha include:

 Monarch Reign Dynasty Source
Early
Purukutsa Vedic Puru [44][45]
Period
Early
Trasadasyu [46]
Vedic Puru
Paurukutsya
Period
Early
Sudās Paijavana Vedic Bharata [47]
Period
Later
Parikṣit Vedic Kuru [48]
Period
Later
Janamejaya [49]
Vedic Kuru
Pārikṣita
Period

185-149 Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva and Malavikagnimitra of

Pushyamitra Shunga Shunga
BCE Kalidasa[50]

1st Ghosundi and Hathibada inscriptions.[50] Some scholars

Sarvatata century Gajayana believe Sarvatata to be a Kanva king, but there is no
BCE definitive evidence for this.[51]
1st
Devimitra century Unknown Musanagar inscription[50]
BCE
1st or
2nd Nanaghat inscription mentions his second
Satakarni I Satavahana
century Ashvamedha[52][50]
CE
3rd
Vasishthiputra Andhra
Chamtamula
century
Ikshvaku Records of his son and grandson[53]
CE
3rd
Shilavarman century Varshaganya Jagatpur inscriptions mention his fourth Ashvamedha[50]
CE
c. 270 – Inscriptions of his descendants state that he performed four
Pravarasena I c. 330 Vakataka
Ashvamedha sacrifices[54]
CE
The inscriptions of Vakataka relatives of the Nagas credit
305-320 Nagas of
Bhavanaga them with 10 horse-sacrifices, although they do not name
CE Padmavati
these kings.[50][53]
300-350
Vijaya-devavarman Shalankayana Ellore inscription[54][55]
CE
4th
Shivaskanda
Varman
century Pallava Hirahadagalli inscription[54]
CE
4th
Kumaravishnu century Pallava Omgodu inscription of his great-grandson[54]
CE
Kutai
4th
Martadipura [56]
Mulawarman century
(present
CE
Indonesia)
Samudragupta c. Gupta Coins of the king and records of his descendants[54][57]
 335/350-
375 CE
414 – [58]
Kumaragupta I Gupta
455 CE
440-460 [53]
Madhava Varman Vishnukundina
CE
5th
Dharasena century Traikutaka [55]
CE
5th
Krishnavarman century Kadamba [55]
CE
494–518
Narayanavarman Varman Legend of Bhaskaravarman's seals[59]
CE
518–542
Bhutivarman Varman Barganga inscription[59]
CE
543–566 Chalukyas of [60]
Pulakeshin I
CE Vatapi
565–585 [61]
Sthitavarman Varman
CE
610–642 Chalukyas of [53]
Pulakeshin II
CE Vatapi
Madhavaraja II (alias
c. 620-
Madhavavarman or
670 CE
Shailodbhava Inscriptions[62][59]
Sainyabhita)
Simhavarman The Sivanvayal pillar inscription states that he performed ten
630-668
(possibly Pallava
CE Ashvamedhas[54]
Narasimhavarman I)
655-680
Adityasena Later Gupta Vaidyanatha temple (Deoghar) inscription[59]
CE

Madhyamaraja I Inscriptions;[63] one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests

c. 670-
(alias Ayashobhita Shailodbhava that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by
700 CE
II) his father Madhavaraja II[59]
Inscriptions; one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests
Dharmaraja (alias c. 726-
Shailodbhava that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by
Manabhita) 727 CE
his grandfather Madhavaraja II[59]
1044– [64]
Rajadhiraja Chola Chola
1052 CE

1734 Ishvaravilasa Kavya by Krishna-bhatta, a participant in Jai

Kachwahas of
Jai Singh II and Singh's Ashvamedha ceremony and a court poet of his son
Jaipur
1741 CE Ishvar Singh[65][66]
 The Dhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription, 1st century BCE, mentions two Ashvamedha rituals by
Pushyamitra in the city of Ayodhya.[67]

The Udayendiram inscription of the 8th-century Pallava king Nandivarman II (alias Pallavamalla) states that
his general Udayachandra defeated the Nishada ruler Prithvivyaghra, who, "desiring to become very
powerful, was running after the horse of the Ashvamedha". The inscription does not clarify which king
initiated this Ashvamedha campaign. Historian N. Venkataramanayya theorized that Prithvivyaghra was a
feudatory ruler, who unsuccessfully tried to challenge Nandivarman's Ashvamedha campaign. However,
historian Dineshchandra Sircar notes that no other inscriptions of Nandivarman or his descendants mention
his performance of Ashvamedha; therefore, it is more likely that the Ashvamedha campaign was initiated by
Prithvivyaghra (or his overlord), and Nandivarman's general foiled it.[68]

In Hindu revivalism
In the Arya Samaj reform movement of Dayananda Sarasvati, the
Ashvamedha is considered an allegory or a ritual to get connected to
the "inner Sun" (Prana)[13][69] According to Dayananda, no horse
was actually to be slaughtered in the ritual as per the Yajurveda.
Following Dayananda, the Arya Samaj disputes the very existence
of the pre-Vedantic ritual; thus Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati
claims that
The horse Shyamakarna on the bank
of Lake Dudumbhi, illustrating
the word in the sense of the Horse Sacrifice does not
Jaimini's commentary on
occur in the Samhitas [...] In the terms of cosmic
Ashvamedha, 19th century,
analogy, ashva s the Sun. In respect to the adhyatma
Maharashtra
paksha, the Prajapati-Agni, or the Purusha, the
Creator, is the Ashva; He is the same as the Varuna, the
Most Supreme. The word medha stands for homage; it
later on became synonymous with oblations in
rituology, since oblations are offered, dedicated to the
one whom we pay homage. The word deteriorated
further when it came to mean 'slaughter' or
'sacrifice'.[70]

He argues that the animals listed as sacrificial victims are just as symbolic as the list of human victims listed
in the Purushamedha[70] (which is generally accepted as a purely symbolic sacrifice already in Rigvedic
times).

Gayatri Pariwar since 1991 has organized performances of a "modern version" of the Ashvamedha where a
statue is used in place of a real horse, according to Hinduism Today with a million participants in
Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh on April 16 to 20, 1994.[71] Such modern performances are sattvika Yajnas
where the animal is worshipped without killing it,[72] the religious motivation being prayer for overcoming
enemies, the facilitation of child welfare and development, and clearance of debt,[73] entirely within the
allegorical interpretation of the ritual, and with no actual sacrifice of any animal.

Reception
The earliest recorded criticism of the ritual comes from the Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy
that assumed various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. A quotation of the
Cārvāka from Madhavacharya's Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha states: "The three authors of the Vedas were
buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all
the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Ashvamedha, these were invented by buffoons, and so all the
various kinds of presents to the priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-
prowling demons."[74]

According to some writers, ashvamedha is a forbidden rite for Kali Yuga, the current age.[75][76]

This part of 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.[77]

Scholar Manohar L. Varadpande, praised the ritual as "social occasions of great magnitude".[78] Rick F.
Talbott writes that "Mircea Eliade treated the Ashvamedha as a rite having a cosmogonic structure which
both regenerated the entire cosmos and reestablished every social order during its performance."[79]

See also
Ashva – Horses in Hinduism
October Horse – Animal sacrifice to Mars
Cruelty to animals – Negligent or abusive action against non-human animal by humans

Footnotes
1. Monier-Williams, Monier; Leumann, E.;
Cappeller, C. (2005). A Sanskrit-English
Dictionary: Etymologically and
Philologically Arranged with Special
Reference to Cognate Indo-European
Languages. Asian Educational Services.
p. 115.
2. Ganguli, K.M. (1883-1896) "Aswamedha
Parva (http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m1
4/index.htm)" in The Mahabharata of
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (12 Volumes).
Calcutta
3. Dutt, M.N. (1905) The Mahabharata
(Volume 14): Ashwamedha Parva.
Calcutta: Elysium Press
4. van Buitenen, J.A.B. (1973) The
Mahabharata: Book 1: The Book of the
Beginning. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press, p 478
5. Debroy, B. (2010) The Mahabharata,
Volume 1. Gurgaon: Penguin Books India,
pp xxiii - xxvi
6. Mansingh, Surjit. Historical Dictionary of
India. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 68.
7. Rick F. Talbott 2005, p. 111.
8. Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam (ed.).
India through the ages (https://archive.org/d
etails/indiathroughages00mada).
Publication Division, Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting, Government of India.
p. 72 (https://archive.org/details/indiathroug
hages00mada/page/72).
9. Glucklich, 111-114
10. Glucklich, 111-112
11. Stutley 1969, p. 257.
12. Glucklich, 112
13. Roshen Dalal 2010, p. 399.
14. Stutley, Margaret (1969). "The Aśvamedha
or Indian Horse Sacrifice" (https://www.jsto
r.org/stable/1258749). Folklore. Taylor &
Francis. 80 (4): 257.
doi:10.1080/0015587X.1969.9716646 (http
s://doi.org/10.1080%2F0015587X.1969.97
16646). JSTOR 1258749 (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/1258749) – via JSTOR.
15. Bose, Saikat (2020). "The Aśvamedha: in
the context of early South Asian socio-
political development" (https://crossasia-jou
rnals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/a
rticle/view/11333/11118). Electronic
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16. Bose 2020, p. 16.
17. Bose 2020, p. 18,20.
18. Renou, Louis (1957). Vedic India.
Translated by Spratt, Philip. Susil Gupta.
pp. 108–109.
19. Apte & 1957-1959, p. 816.
20. Monier-Williams, Leumann & Cappeller
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21. Renou 1957, p. 105.
22. Bose 2020, p. 4.
23. Apte, Vaman Shivaram (1957–1959).
Revised and enlarged edition of Prin. V. S.
Apte's: The practical Sanskrit-English
dictionary. Vol. 3. Poona: Prasad
Prakashan. p. 251.
24. Renou 1957, p. 100, 105-106, 108-109.
25. Monier-Williams, Leumann & Cappeller
2005, p. 178.
26. Goldstücker, Theodor (1856). A Dictionary,
Sanskrit and English. A. Asher and Co.
p. 137.
27. Apte & 1957-1959, p. 1363.
28. Stutley 1969, p. 259.
29. Bose 2020, p. 40.
30. Karmakar, R. D. (1949). "The Aśvamedha:
Its Original Signification" (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/41784542). Annals of the
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 30
(3/4): 333. JSTOR 41784542 (https://www.j
stor.org/stable/41784542) – via JSTOR.
31. Stutley 1969, p. 258.
32. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Vjaceslav V.
Ivanov (1995). Indo-European and the
Indo-Europeans: A Reconstruction and
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and Proto-Culture. Part I: The Text. Part II:
Bibliography, Indexes (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=M2aqp2n2mKkC&q=Ashv
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ISBN 9783110815030.
33. Bose 2020, p. 4-5.
34. Dalal, Roshen (2014). Hinduism: An
Alphabetical Guide (https://www.google.co
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36. Renou 1957, p. 104-105.
37. The Laws of Manu, translated by Wendy
Doniger with Brian K. Smith, p.104.
Penguin Books, London, 1991
38. Glucklich, 111
39. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Vjaceslav V.
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42. David M. Knipe 2015, p. 234.
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Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity.
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46. Erdosy, George; Witzel, Michael (1995).
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(https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/1
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53. Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya 2007,
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g/marapr05/article12.html?Akhand-Jyoti/20
05/Jul-Aug/Ashvamedha/) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20070929080441/htt
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g%2FAshvamedha%2F) September 29,
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and strength" and 'medha' as "the symbol
of supreme wisdom and intelligence",
yielding a meaning of 'ashvamedha' of "the
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illumined power of intellect"
70. The Critical and Cultural Study of the
Shatapatha Brahmana by Swami Satya
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71. Hinduism Today, June 1994 (http://www.hin
duismtoday.com/archives/1994/6/1994-6-0
4.shtml) Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20061213233624/http://www.hinduismto
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December 13, 2006, at the Wayback
Machine
72. "Ashwamedha Yagam in city" (https://web.a
rchive.org/web/20051214083253/http://ww
w.hindu.com/2005/10/13/stories/20051013
16990400.htm). The Hindu. Hyderabad,
Andhra Pradesh. Oct 13, 2005. Archived
from the original (http://www.hindu.com/200
5/10/13/stories/2005101316990400.htm)
on December 14, 2005. Retrieved
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73. Ashwamedhayagnam.org (http://www.ashw
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Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2007
0929082350/http://www.ashwamedhayaag
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74. Madhavacarya, Sarvadarsana-sangraha,
English translation by E. B. Cowell and A.
E. Gough, 1904 quoted in Debiprasad
Chattopadhyaya (ed.), Carvaka/Lokayata:
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77. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Writings and
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