The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c27.s5.37

v1.c27.s5.37

More worth consideration perhaps is the legend of Çunaḥçepa;⁴ in it Hariçcandra the king promises to sacrifice his son to Varuṇa, if the god will give him a son: but, when the child is attained, he defers the offering until he manages to obtain a Brahman Ajīgarta, who consents to sell his son Çunaḥçepa for a vicarious sacrifice, the king having been afflicted by Varuṇa with dropsy and thus recalled to the sense of his duty. When the father binds the son to the post and is about to slay him, the gods set him free in answer to his prayer and he is adopted by one of the priests present at the rite, Viçvāmitra, leaving his wicked father, while Varuṇa frees the king from his disease. The sacrifice was to have taken place at the royal consecration and the rule is laid down that at the consecration of the king the priest must tell the tale, and thus free the king from all sin and the fetters of Varuṇa. It has been suggested therefore, very naturally, by Weber⁵ that we have here the trace of an old practice of human sacrifice at the rite which has been abolished, the tale instead showing how the practice was done away with. The story, as it is recorded, is obviously meaningless, as the king undertakes to slay the son which is sent to him, and the motive is as it stands therefore an absurd one.