Rajasuya

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

Rajasuya (

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]

Description

The rajasuya is associated with the consecration of a king

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. ^ a b c d e f Knipe, David M. (2015). Vedic Voices: Intimate narratives of a living Andhra tradition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 237.
  2. ^ "Rajasuya, Rajasūya, Rājasūya, Rajan-suya: 17 definitions". wisdomlib.org. 27 June 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  3. ISSN 0971-751X
    . Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  4. ^ Renou, Louis (1947). Vedic India. Susil Gupta. pp. 107–108.
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  7. ^ Kanakasabhai, V. (1904). The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. Higginbotham. p. 98.
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External links