Rajasuya

File:King Yudhisthira Performs the Rajasuya Sacrifice.png, a character in the Mahabharata, performs the rajasuya sacrifice]]{{Short description|Sacrifice performed by the ancient kings of India}}

Rajasuya ({{langx|sa|राजसूय|lit=king's sacrifice|translit=Rājasūya}}) is a śrauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king. 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.{{cite web |title=Rajasuya, Rajasūya, Rājasūya, Rajan-suya: 17 definitions |date=2012-06-27 |website=wisdomlib.org |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/rajasuya#sanskrit |access-date=2022-11-27 |lang=en}}

Description

The rajasuya is associated with the consecration of a king and is prescribed as a ritual to establish a king's sovereignty.{{cite news |title=Importance of yagna |date=2018-06-27 |newspaper=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/faith/importance-of-yagna/article24272552.ece |access-date=2019-06-01 |lang=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}} It is described in the Taittiriya corpus, including Apastamba Śrauta Sutra 18.8–25.22. It involves soma pressing, a chariot drive, the king shooting arrows from his bow, and a symbolic "cattle raid": The newly anointed king seizes cattle belonging to his relative, and then gives part of his property to that relative.{{cite book |last=Renou |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Renou |year=1947 |title=Vedic India |publisher=Susil Gupta |pages=107–108}} 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. 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.

The Shatapatha Brahmana states that the rajasuya was the means by which a Kshatriya may become a king, and is not suitable for Brahmanas.{{cite book |last=Raychaudhuri |first=Hemchandra |year=2006 |title=Political History of Ancient India: From the accession of Parikshit to the extinction of the Gupta dynasty |publisher=Cosmo Publications |isbn=978-81-307-0291-9 |page=136 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h1KObc_qaXYC&dq=rajasuya+kings+history&pg=PA136 |lang=en}}

Historically, the rajasuya was performed by the Indo-Aryan kings, which led to the expansion of their kingdoms during the Iron Age.{{cite book |last=Sen |first=Sailendra Nath |year=1999 |title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization |publisher=New Age International |isbn=978-81-224-1198-0 |page=51 |lang=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&dq=history+rajasuya&pg=PA51}} The kings of Tamilakam performed the rajasuya, attended by monarchs of Lanka;{{cite book |last=Kanakasabhai |first=V. |year=1904 |title=The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago |publisher=Higginbotham |page=98 |lang=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzgYmdwFby4C&dq=rajasuya+cholas&pg=PA98}} Kharavela, the king of Kalinga, is described to have performed the rajasuya, despite being a Jain;{{cite book |last=Bandyopadhyaya |first=Jayantanuja |year=2007 |title=Class and Religion in Ancient India |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-84331-727-2 |page=203 |lang=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UDEaE4Jf78sC&dq=rajasuya+gupta&pg=PA203}} and the Satavahana kings performed the ceremony.{{cite book |last=Chakrabarty |first=Dilip K. |date=2010-10-18 |title=The Geopolitical Orbits of Ancient India: The geographical frames of the ancient Indian dynasties |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-908832-4 |page=54 |lang=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIAyDwAAQBAJ&dq=rajasuya+maurya&pg=PT54}} 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.{{cite book |last=Simmons |first=Caleb |date=2020-01-03 |title=Devotional Sovereignty: Kingship and religion in India |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-008889-7 |page=228 |lang=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMHADwAAQBAJ&dq=rajasuya+vijayanagara&pg=PA228}}