Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part A
Horse Sacrifice (Ashwamedha)
Dasharatha performs this ritual so that the Gods will give him an heir. One horse let loose on the night of the full moon during the month of Choitro (last month of the Bengali calendar; Mid-March to mid-April). The horse wanders for a full year accompanied by a brahmin and returns to the kingdom. Twenty-one other birds, beasts and reptiles offered as a sacrifice alongside the horse once it returned.
Kaushalya slew the horse with the sacred scimitar while the brahmins chanted mantras. The queens Kaushalya and Kaikeyi sat beside the horse's body all night long as was called for by the rite. Portions of the horses flesh were put into the fire.
Source. Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913).
Sagara, King of Ayodhya offers horse sacrifice after his sons had grown. Warriors of Sagara protected horse as it was allowed to wander. Indra in the form of a rakshasi stole the horse. The sixty thousand sons of the King of Ayodhya searched for the missing horse. The sons are killed when they find the horse. The grandson of Sagara, Anshumat, finds his uncles' ashes and returns with the horse for the completion of the sacrifice.
Prompt Questions: What might happen to the horse during a year of wandering? How might the ritual be viewed or experienced from the horses perspective?
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