Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Hindu Administrative Institutions c7.s6: (v) The Aśvamedha

Hindu Administrative Institutions c7.s6

Language
English

(v) The Aśvamedha

c7.s6.1

Mention must be made of another important yajña (sacrifice) which was also political in aim and character. It is the aśvamedha, an important sacrifice that is expected to be performed by every great monarch who aimed at attaining the highest place (Indrahood) in heaven. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa calls it an ‘utsanna yajña.’¹ The same epithet is given also to the चितिस्थलं in the Garuda-chayana yajña.²

c7.s6.2

¹ xiii. 3. 3. 6.

c7.s6.3

² v. 3. 1. 1. Several meanings such as ‘detached’, ‘extended’ are given for this term. The Yajurveda Saṃhita (Black School) suggests utsanna yajña to mean a sacrifice that is unworthy.

c7.s6.4

The aśvamedha like the kindred rājasūya is a rite certainly complex in its nature. Eggeling says, ‘A great state function in which religious and sacrificial element is closely and deftly interwoven with a varied programme of secular ceremonies.’ But this differs from the rājasūya to the extent that the performer of the latter might be any petty chieftain while that of the former must be a king of kings. He should be one to

c7.s6.5

उत्सन्नयज्ञो वा एष यदग्नि किंवा हैतस्यक्रियते
किं वा न यद्वै यज्ञस्य क्रियमाणस्य अन्तर्यन्ति

c7.s6.6

question whose authority and supremacy there must be none else.¹

c7.s6.7

¹ As to the origin of this institution Eggeling seems to take the view that it must be a later institution as there is no positive evidence in the *Rig Veda Saṃhita*. There are however references in the *Rig Veda* (i. 162, 163) even in the very first *maṇḍala*. Prof. Eggeling is quite aware of these but would have them as 'latest productions' for reasons we cannot divine. We could not set aside these positive indications, because the *Rig Veda Brāhmaṇas*, the *Aitareya* and the *Kausītaki* have not mentioned it. Perhaps it is not material to the point in the *Brāhmaṇas*.

c7.s6.8

The *aśvamedha* is reckoned to be the best of sacrifices.² Both the epics bear testimony to the *aśvamedha* sacrifice in practice. King Daśaratha performed it for the birth of a son, and Yudhiṣṭhira to purge himself clean of all sin that could have come to him from the great carnage at Kurukṣetra.³ The *aśvamedha* sacrifice is elaborately described in the thirteenth *kāṇḍa* of the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*. It would appear that the sacrificial horse is let loose to wander through various parts of the empire, but only under a powerful escort. The object of its performance is clearly set forth in the opening lines of this *kāṇḍa*. 'Thereby the gods redeem all sin, yea, even the slaying of a Brahman they thereby redeem; and he who performs the *aśvamedha* redeems all sin, he redeems even the slaying of a Brahman.'⁴ In this one smells an ethical flavour. The great epic shows that it follows tradition exclusively when it declares 'The *aśvamedha* purges one of all evil deeds and acts. By its performance you would undoubtedly be delivered from all sins.¹ The celebration of a world-conquest was often marked by the performance of this sacrifice. The *Atharva Veda*, besides the *Rig Veda Samhita* to which we have already referred, makes mention of the four *yajñas* which can be performed by the Kṣatriyas. These are categorically the *rājasūya*, the *aśvamedha*, the *puruṣamedha* and the *sārvamedha*. These are also found mentioned in the *Mahābhārata*. Here² Vyāsa instructs Yudhiṣṭhira that these four are deserving of performance by a king who aspires to achieve glory here and hereafter. Of these the *puruṣamedha* was not in actual practice though Dr. Hillebrandt takes the opposite view.³ There is no other legend than that of Sunaśchepa described in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*. The *sārvamedha* is again a ritual for universal sovereignty. The consecrated king performs it when he becomes an emperor. It is a ten days' sacrifice, once performed by Viśvakarma Bhuvana with the officiating Ṛtvik Kāśyapa. The constitutional import of this sacrifice seems to be very important. Here we have for the first time the realization of the concept of India as a political and territorial unit.⁴ Here we have the ‘sole ruler’ of all earth bounded by the ocean.⁵

c7.s6.9

² *Śat. Br.*, xiii. 1. 2. 2.

c7.s6.10

³ A whole *parvan* is devoted in the *Mahābhārata* to the performance of this *yajña* by the Pāṇḍava princes in general. Some scholars seem to be of opinion that this *parvan* is anachronistic. It must have been a later introduction into the *Mahābhārata*, perhaps a condensed version of the Jaimini's *Bhārata* (*Aśvamedha* portion) which is comparatively a modern work. This supposition is certainly untenable. The institution of *aśvamedha* *yajña* is recognized even in Vedic days.

c7.s6.11

⁴ xiii. 3. 1. 1; Eggeling Trans.

c7.s6.12

¹ अश्वमेधो हि राजेन्द्र पावनः सर्वपाप्मनाम् । तेनेष्टा त्वं विपाप्मावै भविता नात्र संशयः ॥ (*Aśvamedha*, lxxi. 16.) अश्वमेधो महायज्ञः पावनः सर्वपाप्मनाम् । पावनस्तव दुर्धर्षो रोचतां रघुनन्दन ॥ (*Rāmāyaṇa*, vii. 84. 2.)

c7.s6.13

² *Aśvamedha*, 3. 8.

c7.s6.14

³ *Ritual litteratur*, p. 145; see Keith, *H.O.S.*, vol. xxv, Introduction, p. 62.

c7.s6.15

⁴ *Śat. Br.*, xiii. 7. 1; *Ait. Br.*, viii. 15.

c7.s6.16

⁵ Eggeling is correct when he says that though the procedure of the *puruṣamedha* is elaborately seen in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, *Śāṅkhāyana* and *Vaitāna Sūtras*, still from the form in which it is presented in these

Linked texts (9)