Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s5.t2.101

v1.c17.s5.t2.101

³ The Mahabharata describes this warfare against the snakes literally : of which, in one attack, he seized and made a burnt-offering (hom) of twenty thousand. It is surprising that the Hindu will accept these things literally. It might be said he had but a choice of difficulties, and that it would be as impossible for any human being to make the barbarous sacrifice of twenty thousand of his species, as it would be difficult to find twenty thousand snakes for the purpose. The author’s knowledge of what barbarity will inflict leaves the fact of the human sacrifice, though not perhaps to this extent, not even improbable. In 1811 his duties called him to a survey