Vedic Brahmin practices in ancient South India

[Valerie J Roebuck]

Are you *sure* this was meant literally?  It sounds to me like a pretty
good metaphor for warfare.

Valerie J Roebuck
Manchester, UK

N. Ganesan writes
>
>Cooking the blood and intestines of enemy king killed in battle
>using a hearth made of chopped heads is found in Sangam texts,
>Hart-Heifetz translation (puRam 93):
>"... and you quickened the battle
>  so that kings fell, and you captured
>their royal drums and spread your fame!
>and then, with food you had created, you
>    sacrificed on the killing field,
>using an oven of crowned heads after pouring
>    out a torrent of blood
>into the cooking pot and stirring it with the
>    ladle of an arm still braceleted!
>Ce_liya_n, murderous in battle! As Brahmins
>   of the Four Vedas,
>calm through the breadth of their knowledge,
>devoted to restraint, surrounded you
>and kings carried out your orders,
>you completed the sacrifice established
>by tradition! ..."

[Of another poem]

>This song by auvaiyAr is interesting for the following
>reasons. Brahmins act as funerary priests in a burial. Moreover,
>the brahmins cut the body with the sword before burial.

Also that the poet does not approve of the practice--VJR