Rajasuya

Rajasuya

Rajasuya

Sacrifice performed by the ancient kings of India

Rajasuya (Sanskrit: राजसूय, romanized: Rājasūya, lit. 'king's sacrifice') is a śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king.[1] According to the Puranas, it refers to a great sacrifice performed by a Chakravarti – universal monarch, in which the tributary princes may also take part, at the time of his coronation, as a mark of his undisputed sovereignty.[2]

King Yudhishthira, a character in the Mahabharata, performs the rajasuya sacrifice

Description

The rajasuya is associated with the consecration of a king[1] and is prescribed as a ritual to establish a king's sovereignty.[3] It is described in the Taittiriya corpus, including Apastamba Śrauta Sutra 18.8–25.22.[1] It involves soma pressing, a chariot drive, the king shooting arrows from his bow, and a symbolic "cattle raid":[1] The newly anointed king seizes cattle belonging to his relative, and then gives part of his property to that relative.[4] Also included is a game of throwing dice with the Adhvaryu priest in which the king wins a cow, by which the king is enthroned and the cosmos is regenerated.[1] There is a revealing of the tale of Shunahshepa, a boy who was nearly sacrificed to Varuna on behalf of the sonless king Harishchandra, which hints at a rejected archaic practice of human sacrifice.[1]

The Shatapatha Brahmana states that the rajasuya was the means by which a Kshatriya may become a king, and is not suitable for Brahmanas.[5]

Historically, the rajasuya was performed by the Indo-Aryan kings, which led to the expansion of their kingdoms during the Iron Age.[6] The kings of Tamilakam performed the rajasuya, attended by monarchs of Lanka;[7] Kharavela, the king of Kalinga, is described to have performed the rajasuya, despite being a Jain;[8] and the Satavahana kings performed the ceremony.[9] The sacrifice was performed by kings throughout the subcontinent; records of its performance in South India at least date until the time of the Vijayanagara Empire.[10]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Knipe, David M. (2015). Vedic Voices: Intimate narratives of a living Andhra tradition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 237.
  2. [2]
    "Rajasuya, Rajasūya, Rājasūya, Rajan-suya: 17 definitions". wisdomlib.org. 27 June 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  3. [3]
    "Importance of yagna". The Hindu. 27 June 2018. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  4. [4]
    Renou, Louis (1947). Vedic India. Susil Gupta. pp. 107–108.
  5. [5]
    Raychaudhuri, Hemchandra (2006). Political History of Ancient India: From the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty. Cosmo Publications. p. 136. ISBN 978-81-307-0291-9.
  6. [6]
    Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International. p. 51. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0.
  7. [7]
    Kanakasabhai, V. (1904). The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. Higginbotham. p. 98.
  8. [8]
    Bandyopadhyaya, Jayantanuja (2007). Class and Religion in Ancient India. Anthem Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-84331-727-2.
  9. [9]
    Chakrabarty, Dilip K. (18 October 2010). The Geopolitical Orbits of Ancient India: The geographical frames of the ancient Indian dynasties. Oxford University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-19-908832-4.
  10. [10]
    Simmons, Caleb (3 January 2020). Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and religion in India. Oxford University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-19-008889-7.
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