Rajasuya

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 means to establish a king's sovereignty.[3] It is described in the Taittiriya corpus, including Apastamba Srauta Sutra 18.8–25.22.[1] It involves soma pressing, a chariot drive, the king shooting arrows from his bow, and a brief "cattle raid".[1] The newly anointed king seizes cattle belonging to his relative, and then gives part of his property to that relative.[4] There is a telling of the tale of Shunahshepa, a boy who was nearly sacrificed to Varuna on behalf of the sonless king Harishchandra.[1] 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] 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] The Satavahana kings performed the ceremony.[9] The sacrifice was performed by kings throughout the subcontinent, recorded to have been performed in South India at least until the time of the Vijayanagara Empire.[10]

See also

References
  1. Knipe 2015, p. 237.
  2. www.wisdomlib.org (2012-06-27). "Rajasuya, Rajasūya, Rājasūya, Rajan-suya: 17 definitions". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  3. "Importance of yagna". The Hindu. 2018-06-27. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
  4. Renou, Louis (1947). Vedic India. Susil Gupta. pp. 107–108.
  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. Sen, Sailendra Nath (1999). Ancient Indian History and Civilization. New Age International. p. 51. ISBN 978-81-224-1198-0.
  7. Kanakasabhai, V. (1904). The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago. Higginbotham. p. 98.
  8. Bandyopadhyaya, Jayantanuja (2007). Class and Religion in Ancient India. Anthem Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-84331-727-2.
  9. Chakrabarty, Dilip K. (2010-10-18). 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. Simmons, Caleb (2020-01-03). Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and Religion in India. Oxford University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-19-008889-7.
  • Knipe, David M. (2015), Vedic Voices: Intimate Narratives of a Living Andhra Tradition, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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