War in Ancient India c4.s6.t7.16

c4.s6.t7.16

A prominent feature of the Aśvamedha consisted of letting a sacrificial horse roam about the country as it pleased, and it was open to other chieftains either to allow it to go its way, or keep the animal in their territorial limits, which was a signal for claiming superiority and hence preparedness to fight out. Often the horse went unrestrained. But there were cases where jealous kings resented and the resentment led to fighting. Everyone knows the fate which overtook the sixty thousand sons of Sagara in the course of their search for the sacrificial horse. We are told again that the young sons of Rāma—Lava and Kuśa—had the sacrificial animal of Rāma bound, and this led to a great fight. In these cases the army was not certainly maintained for defences but to satisfy the vainglorious temperament of certain monarchs.