ashvamedha--to eat or not to eat?

Himanshu Dave hbd at DDIT.ERNET.IN
Fri Feb 11 11:38:20 UTC 2000


Madhav Deshpande wrote:

> The current discussion about Azvamedha sacrifice reminds me of an incident
> a few years ago.  Someone from Chicago called me asking me to contribute
> money for a performance of Azvamedha they were going to conduct in
> Chicago.  I was shocked and thrilled at the same time, and I asked the
> person how they were going to deal with sacrificing the horse.  The person
> was outraged at my question.  He said there was no reason to kill a horse.
> The swamy who had organized this Azvamedha explained to his followers that
> this sacrifice was to be performed so that the medhaa "intelligence" of
> the children of the community will be as swift as an azva "horse".  They
> were going to recite the holy Gaayatrii mantra several thousand times and
> make offerings of ghee into the fire.  This was the true Azvamedha.
> Suffice it to say that this interpretation had saved the life of a horse.
> Best,
>                                 Madhav Deshpande

No, no; the Swami was mistaken! He was not knowing his own roots. He should
have really arranged to sacrifice a horse (i.e. a real horse) because so says
RigVeda and Yajurveda according to the "Scholars".
--  Himanshu
============================================
Prof. H.B. Dave
Co-ordinator for Institutional Development
and Professor & Head of Department
Computer Engineering
Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology
College Road
NADIAD   387001 (Gujarat) India
Tel : (O) +91 268 60502
      (R) +91 268 61025
FAX :     +91 268 60501

e-mail : hbd at ddit.ernet.in
============================================





More information about the INDOLOGY mailing list