Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c28.190

v2.c28.190

Brāhman sacrifices his Daughter.—It was on the raja’s return from court to his native land that he beheld the damsel, and he determined, notwithstanding the sacred character of her father and his own obligations as the dispenser of law and justice, to enjoy the object of his admiration. The Brahman was an Ayapanthi,¹ or votary of Ayamata, whose shrine is at Bhavi-Bhilara. These sectarians of Maru, very different from the abstinent Brahmans of Bengal, eat flesh, drink wine, and share in all the common enjoyments of life with the martial spirits around them. Whether the scruples of the [36] daughter were likely to be easily overcome by her royal tempter, or whether the raja threatened force, the Khyat does not inform us; but as there was no other course by which the father could save her from pollution but by her death, he resolved to make it one of vengeance and horror. He dug a sacrificial pit, and having slain his daughter, cut her into fragments, and mingling therewith pieces of flesh from his own person, made the Homa, or burnt sacrifice to Ayamata, and as the smoke and flames ascended he pronounced an imprecation on the raja: “Let peace be a stranger to him! and in three pahars,² three days, and three years, let me have revenge!” Then exclaiming, “My future dwelling is the Dabhi Baori!” sprung into the flaming pit. The horrid tale was related to the raja, whose imagination was haunted by the shade of the Brahman;