Over the weekend, we had received a question from a reader as to the reasoning underpinning the Asvamedha – the Horse Sacrifice.

Specifically, why would one offer a horse given the high value of such a creature in the late Bronze Age / early Iron Age milieu. 

Now, several people proffered suggestions as to the answer here, that can effectively be boiled down to the fact of the horse’s great value making it the ideal sacrifice.

This misses the point – although I can see how they have reasoned it. 

One person went rather further down the ‘value’ trajectory and sought to assert that the significant value of the horse would be due to its scarcity – and, again, I can see how they have reasoned it; it resonates with the ‘paradox of value’ I recall from my much younger years learning economics. In brief, there is indeed an argument to be had that a high monetary value for something CAN have something to do with its relative scarcity – and that in various cases, it should seem that it is this rather than the utility, the usefulness of something that has become the major arbiter as to its pricing. 

Except the thing is – that’s not really at all how sacrificial metaphysics works. 

Which is NOT to say that there is no value ascribed to offerings of rare gems and great amounts of gold and so forth … but let’s take a look at a case-in-point for that ‘in action’. 

One tale told as to the origin for our Pitru Paksha custom – wherein sustenance is offered to the shades of our dead forebears – involves Karna, the famed figure of the Mahabharat. Now, so the story goes, he had died and ascended to the afterlife … only to find that there was nothing there for him to eat or drink. Although it was not quite ‘nothing’ – there was quite a lot of gold. To which Karna enquired of the Lord of that place why this was being offered to him, as it was not like he could eat it. And to which it was replied that he was being presented with gold in the afterlife to eat, precisely because that was all which he had been offering whilst he was ‘down here’ among us on Earth in life. He had been generous in his monetary offerings – yet had never made offerings of food. And so now he was reaping as he had sown in the hereafter. 

Karna, of course, is granted – via the great compassion and judicious mercy of Lord Yama – opportunity to come down and fix the situation , setting the template for our aforementioned Pitru Paksha observances and Tarpana to the Ancestors; and you can probably see where I’m going with this.

The purpose of the offering, the sacrifice, in that case was not simply to give something precious – and it was not scarcity that made the offering have value. Rather, it was that ‘utility’ dimension : it was the right offering for the right metaphysical purpose, and hence the mandating of just what it is which one is supposed to offer, why and how. 

This should stand us in good stead for considering the Asvamedha more closely going forward. 

Now the first thing we need to do is to understand just what the Asvamedha actually is. It’s NOT simply an ‘ordinary’ ritual nor offering. One is not just giving up something precious to the Gods in the hope of a general blessing, after all. 

Rather, it is irreducibly correlate with ‘sovereignty’ and the royal power of the king having the rite done. That’s its purpose. 

Indeed, it’s also a remarkably ‘involved’ rite – in no small part because it’s NOT simply comprised of getting the animal to the ritual space and then the sacrifice itself ensuing over the course of, say, an afternoon or evening. 

Instead, the whole thing is actually also a test – the horse is supposed to be duly appointed and arrayed (as you can see, somewhat, in this decent art by Ramakrishna Gimmegari that we’ve chosen to illustrate the piece), and then set out to wander as the effective ‘bearer’ for the King’s sovereignty. Where it can wander unimpeded and unattacked, there his sovereignty is held to extend. Where it wanders into enemy territory … the foe have the choice to accept the de facto ‘annexation’, or they can choose to attack the horse and thereby incept a war – the king is supposed to follow up and follow through to establish his paramount sovereignty through the attestation that no-one disputes it. Either because all assent to his claim, or because there is nobody left who dissents. 

As a brief aside – the Asvamedha , the Horse-Sacrifice of Daksha – is intriguing to consider in this dimension, precisely because Daksha does have his rite rather heavily disrupted by the true Sovereign(s) of the Universe Entire, Mahadev & Devi. You see how it works. But we digress.

So, in order to explain why the ‘Asva’ of the Asvamedha … 

It is clear that in order to carry out the style of observance in question one needs an animal to act as the focal point, and one that is going to ‘wander’. Wander rather far, assumedly. And, we may suggest, with a certain ‘martial’ connotation also proving helpful. 

The horse wandering whilst demarcated as the bearer of the King’s Sovereignty is in a way a simulacra for a warhorse, a war-host – or, at least, it is the ‘pre-stage’ of one, as what is supposed ot then happen if the horse is challenged .. well, you see where it goes.

Third, however, are the more esoteric dimensions.

You shall find repeatedly stated in the relevant ritualine texts that the Horse is akin to the Sun … which, after all, Sovereignty, relevant energy, so on and so forth.

The Sun is also represented as a Horse in other contexts (c.f. the mythology around Surya and Saranyu/Chhaya) – and we may, perhaps, presume that this has something to do with the idea of the Horse going up and across the wide expanse of Sky, with all the swiftness of a being which can quickly move inside a single day’s light across from one horizon to the other. Perhaps it is an earlire stage of the Solar Chariot(wheel) concept. 

With all of this in mind, the Horse is therefore a logical ’embodiment’ in the course of our ritual proceedings for the Sun. 

Now, because people occasionally want more direct supports for things i say .. here’s a few quotes from the SBr [Eggeling translation]. Not all are directly pertaining to the Asvamedha rite , to be sure.

VI 3 3 10 : “And, again, why he makes it step thereon;–the gods then were afraid, thinking, ‘We hope the Rakshas, the fiends, will not slay here this our (Agni)!’ They placed that thunderbolt upon him as a protector, to wit, yonder sun; for that horse is indeed yonder sun; and in like manner does this (Sacrificer, or priest) now place upon him that thunderbolt as a protector.”

X 6 7-8: “7 He desired, ‘May this (body) of mine be sacrificially pure: may I thereby be possessed of a self!’ Thereupon the horse (asva) was produced; and because that which was swelling (asvat) became pure (medhya) therefore the name Asvamedha (belongs to that sacrifice). He, indeed, knows the Asvamedha who thus knows him.

8 He bethought him of leaving it unrestrained. At the end of a year he slaughtered it for his own self, and made over the (sacrificial) animals to the deities: therefore they slaughter the consecrated (victim) as one that, in its nature as Pragâpati, represents all the deities. But the Asvamedha, in truth, is he that shines yonder (the sun), and the year is his body. The Arka is this Fire, and these worlds are his bodies. These two are the Arka and Asvamedha; but these, indeed, become again one deity, to wit, Death. And, verily, whosoever knows this, conquers recurrent Death, and Death has no hold on him: Death is his own self; he attains all life, and becomes one of those deities.”

The Horse is also arrayed in splendorous decoration for his role – the Brahmanas have gold and pearl and glass elements being woven into the male and tail of the Horse (c.f. SBr XIII 2 6 8 ; Taittiriya Brahmana III 9 4 ; etc.), and it is rather interesting to observe the vague resemblance of the invocatory formulas uttered at this point in the rite with what is found in the contemporarily familiar (and Solar energy inviting) Gayatri Mantra formulation. 

To quote from the Tait. Br. in relation to this stage – immediately following the aforementioned triplanar invocation, we find :

“The pearls [woven into the hair of the horse] are made of gold. Gold is light forsooth; and the horse-sacrifice is royal authority.”
[Dumont translation]

We might also quote from elsewhere in the SBr [XIII 2 2]:

“16 The slaughtering-knife of the horse is made of gold, those of the ‘paryaṅgyas’ of copper, and those of the others of iron; for gold is (shining) light, and the Asvamedha is the royal office: he thus bestows light upon the royal office. And by means of the golden light (or, by the light of the gold), the Sacrificer also goes to the heavenly world; and he, moreover, makes it a gleam of light shining after him, for him to reach the heavenly world.

17 But, indeed, the horse is also the nobility; and this also–to wit, gold–is a form (symbol) of the nobility: he thus combines the nobility with the nobility.”
[Eggeling translation] 

And, for that matter, from the pertinent RigVedic liturgies:

“2 What time they bear before the Courser, covered with trappings and with wealth, the grasped oblation,
[…]
16 The robe they spread upon the Horse to clothe him, the upper covering and the golden trappings,
The halters which restrain the Steed, the heel-ropes,—all these, as grateful to the Gods, they offer.”
[RV I 162, Griffith translation]

RV I 163, meanwhile, declares – “from out the Sun ye fashioned forth the Courser.”, hailing the horse as an Aaditya [of the Sun], and speaking of it also as a bird that flies and soars through the Heavens; to let the hymnal itself (or, at least, Griffith’s translation thereof) take over:

“8 After thee, Courser, come the car, the bridegroom, the kine come after, and the charm of maidens.
Full companies have followed for thy friendship: the pattern of thy vigour Gods have copied.
9 Horns made of gold hath he: his feet are iron: less fleet than he, though swift as thought, is Indra.
The Gods have come that they may taste the oblation of him who mounted, first of all, the Courser.
10 Symmetrical in flank, with rounded haunches, mettled like heroes, the Celestial Coursers
Put forth their strength, like swans in lengthened order, when they, the Steeds, have reached the heavenly causeway.
11 A body formed for flight hast thou, O Charger; swift as the wind in motion is thy spirit.
Thy horns are spread abroad in all directions: they move with restless beat in wildernesses.”

Oh, and earlier we hear of the Horse’s genesis within the Waters – something that also should seem to ascribe to the Sun, rising up out of  the  waters which are that liminal sphere about Creation; and, yes, for those of you playing at home, presenting logical resonancy for the situation of Poseidon in relation to Horses … and if you look in the right way, potentially also having some bearing for the Pegasus, likewise, as we have previously detailed elsewhere. 

You didn’t think that the Greek ‘Flying Horse’ was going to be a mere coincidence, now, did you?

All of this also helps to explicate the situation of Scythian Thagimasadas (or Thagimasidas or Thamimasadas, inter alia) , identified by Herodotus with Poseidon , as being the figure worshipped by the ‘Royal Scythians’ and receiving of their offerings. 

And they are not alone out there upon the Steppe in such regard. 

To quote Herodotus I 216, detailing the religious customs of the Massagetae – a Steppe Iranic (‘Scythian’-ish) nation:

“The sun is the only god whom they worship; to him they sacrifice horses; the reason of it is that he is the swiftest of the gods and therefore they give him the swiftest of mortal things.”
[Godley translation]

Now, the resemblance to elements of the Asvamedha liturgy is not coincidental – for example, during the context of SBr XIII 1 2:

“7 ‘I sprinkle thee, acceptable to Vâyu,’–for Vâyu is the swiftest of gods: it is speed he bestows on it, whence the horse is the swiftest of animals.”

(the relevant phrasing, for those playing at home, being ‘ tasmādaśvaḥ paśūnāmāśiṣṭhaḥ ‘ – and you can see the familiar ‘Asva’ correlate in the ‘ashistha’ of ‘pashunamashisthah’ … Sanskrit ‘Asva’, as with its Iranic sphere cognates ‘Asa’ (Old Persian) and ‘Aspa’ (Avestan), etc. being from that PIE *h₁éḱwos, itself from *h₁eḱ- , and referring fundamentally to the ‘Swiftness’ of the animal)

It is true that in this context we have Vayu rather than Aditya mentioned as what the Horse is to be made like – however that is a resonance of ‘quality’; and we are most certainly not bereft of contextual associations elsewhere in the manual (even afore we consider the circumstance of Vayu also as a Sky Father deific facing – c.f. the well-known Ashtamurti conceptry for Lord Shiva which has Vayu & Sun in such phrasing).

SBr VI 3 2: “2 He addresses the horse, with (Vâg. S. XI, 12), ‘Most speedily, O courser, run hither,’–what is swift, that is speedy, and what is swifter than swift, that is most speedy;–‘along the widest range,’–the widest range doubtless is this (earth): thus, ‘along this wide range;’–‘in the sky is thy highest home, in the air thy navel, upon earth thy womb:’ he thus makes it to be those deities, Agni, Vâyu, and Âditya (the sun), and thus lays vigour into the horse.”

Herodotus, handily for us, also makes direct mention of the Scythians, at IV 61, as, in relation to their sacrificial customs making use of “ἵππους μάλιστα.”

That is to say – they use horses ([h]ippious – also from our familiar *h₁éḱwos root) , with emphasis.

We mention this in part because all of this should seem to suggest that the Horse-Sacrifice is one of those features from the old, archaic Indo-Iranic religious orthodoxy – not that that is anything especially surprising. However, one of our interlocutors had made a somewhat curious pronouncement that there was no evidence of an Asvamedha sacrifice (we shall presume ‘Asvamedha-style’ or ‘Asvamedha-resemblant’) out on the Steppe, as part of his argument that the ‘Horse’ component to the ‘Horse Sacrifice’ was there due to value, this value being mediated by scarcity, and a Steppe Horse being much more plentiful out there upon the Steppe as compared to in the region of Vedic India. 

As you can see, we somewhat disagree with the notion of a lack of Asvamedha[-resemblant] rites out there where the horses were inferentially more plentiful. 

We would also observe that scarcity of the ‘raw material’ for the offering is no sure indication of value – as can be demonstrated via the fact that human sacrifice may have potent metaphysical value, NOT because humans are rare but instead for other reasonings. 
(note: this is strictly the general situation of humans that we are stating to be ‘non-rare’ – the actual incidence of human sacrifice, however, should appear to be much more so. Much more rare, that is.)

Instead, the reasoning for the Horse being integral to the Horse Sacrifice is quite obvious – insofar as the texts themselves seek to tell us this in extensive and repeated detailing. 

And so, with all of that in mind, we would have to respectfully suggest that a strict enthusiasm merely for the price (‘value’, in one sense, I suppose) of the horse – or any other sacrificial element, for that matter – or, closely related, the idea of its relative scarcity as being the essential underpinning to its ‘value’ to our proceedings … is a case of knowing (or thinking to know) the price of everything, but not necessarily the value of much. 

That is because the ‘value’ of various offering elements is not to be measured merely via such economic means and mechanisms as their scarcity or even their today’s dollar-value (in former times, their exchange-value in other terms). 

This is not to denigrate the persons advancing such a hypothesis in their conjecture. After all, we can most definitely view various ritual operations as containing an element of ‘exchange’ – mediated via the essential principle of ‘Do Ut Des’ / ‘Dehi Me Dadami Te’ (the Latin and Sanskrit formulations for the maxim, respectively – the latter being occurrent at TS I 8 4 1, or at VS III 50, contingent upon which prominent Yajurvedic recension you prefer). Which should not be confused, I do not think, for  ‘purchasing’ (and we do not at all wish to encourage the notion of piety, much less of Gods, as pertaining to some form of ‘Cosmic Vending Machine’), but instead is a mutual contribution in an ongoing relationship context.

Yet the offerings must be suitable. They must concord with the necessities of the rite and the requirements of those active participants involved therein. Both human and Divine. There is a great ‘resonancy’ principle involved, as we have clearly seen – and that is precisely because, in the case of various elements which are involved in these more ornate and complex rituals, it is not that these things are ‘simple’ offerings … it is that these elements are actually, more truthfully, ritual components, ritual tools, things that are to be made use of in the course of the many and multifaceted steps of the metaphysical operation in question. And, as part and parcel to this, which are often required to ‘bear a mythic essence’ to them. We might draw from an array of other (Yajur)Vedic instances in support of this point, speaking to those ‘tools’ (weapons, in particular) which are intended to ‘become’ as through ‘bearing the essence of’ a Vajra, say. At least, for the span of the ritual’s necessitous duration. 

And so it is with the Horse in the course of the Asvamedha.

Whether you choose to view it as the course of  ‘like being given (back) to like’ – or whether it is that ‘like’ is ‘bearing the essence’, once again, of ‘like’ – we arrive at the same point. That of the essentialized characteristics, utilizable and drawn out within a ritualine context, being what renders something suitable as such a ritual component – and ultimately as an offering , when imbued or otherwise treated and prepared in the proper fashioning. 

Phrased another way – as applies those gold, glass, etc. accouterments with which the Horse is to be adorned etc. … I do not think that the Gold is held to be ‘resonant’ for the ‘currents’ of the Sunlight (and all that that represents – including viz. longevity etc. … ‘power’, we might potent-ially say) simply because gold is rare and expensive. Instead, I think that it has much more to do with the fact that it’s – first and foremost – golden in its colouration, the way it glitters and radiates when held up to the light. And, perhaps, the manner in which it is enduring and basically ‘non-reactive’ in a chemical sense (at least, to almost all the corrosions that an archaic people should likely have had access to – it would not be until the development of alchemical solvents such as the famed Aqua Regia with their overt halogen componentry that the dissolution of Gold became a viable prospect … and therefore, a ‘magical’ property in order to counter one).

In other words – it looks like the Sunlight and acts somewhat like the Sunlight (or the Fire), as well. And that is the essence-tial principle of “Resonance’ that underpins its involvement at relevant portions and points of the ritual undertaking. 

So to, it should seem, viz. the Horse.

Which, in this context, is to be an emblem(atic embodiment) for Regal Power – a utilization no doubt rather helped by its demonstrable importance in other contexts for Regal Power (i.e. its martial etc. employments) , yet which is functionally most contingent upon the Solar connexions established via the mythic and liturgical presentations for the Horse in fairly direct resonancy with that greatest symbolic expression for Regal Power … the Sun – that which has suzerainty extending quite literally ‘as far as the eye can see’. 

Just what you’d expect for a Rite whose essential orientation is that of establishing its focal king as the plenipotentiary, paramount king of his age and land. ‘Wide-Shining’, Celestial, and capable of going anywhere and being welcomed as the life-giving force that his mythic prototype constitutes for the worlds entire. 

What else could carry (and bear) the Solar Essence – nor transport it down (and bear an ‘ascendant’ back up again) across the subtle roadways of the sky? 

It has to be the Horse !