The ceremony of the royal consecration.
राजसूय (rājasūya) [Printed book page 2-219] Rāja-sūya is the name in the Atharvaveda
1 and the later
literature
2 of the ceremony of the ‘royal consecration.’ The
rite is described at great length in the Sūtras,
3 but its main
features are clearly outlined in the Brāhmaṇas,
4 while the
verses used in the ceremony are preserved in the Saṃhitās of
the Yajurveda.
5 Besides much mere priestly elaboration, the
ritual contains traces of popular ceremonial. For example, the
king is clothed in the ceremonial garments of his rank, and
provided with bow and arrow as emblems of sovereignty. He
is formally anointed; he performs a mimic cow raid against a
relative of his;
6 or engages in a sham fight with a
Rājanya.7 A game of dice is played in which he is made to be the victim;
8 he symbolically ascends the quarters of the sky as an indication
of his universal rule; and steps on a tiger skin, thus gaining
the strength and the pre-eminence of the tiger.
Page2-220+ 47 A list of the consecrated kings is given in the Aitareya Brāh-
maṇa,
9 where the royal inauguration is called the ‘great
unction’ (
mahābhiṣeka) connected with Indra. It corresponds
generally with a list of Aśvamedhins, ‘performers of the horse
sacrifice,’ given in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
10 and the Śāṅkhā-
yana Śrauta Sūtra.
11 [
Footnote: 1) iv. 8, 1; xi. 7, 7.] [
Footnote: 2) Taittirīya Saṃhitā, v. 6, 2, 1; Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, vii. 15, 8; Sata- patha Brāhmaṇa, v. 1, 1, 12, etc.] [
Footnote: 3) See Weber, Über die Königsweihe, den Rājasūya; Hillebrandt, Rituallitteratur, 144-147; Oldenberg, Religion des Veda, 472, 491. The relation of the Śunaḥ- śepa episode formed part of the ritual. That this points to human sacrifice having once formed part of the ritual of the Rājasūya as supposed by Hille- brandt, loc. cit.; Weber, 47; and Olden- berg, 366, n. 1, seems very doubtful. Cf. Keith, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1907, 844, 845.] [
Footnote: 4) Especially Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, v. 2, 3, 1 et seq. See also Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, iv. 3, 1 et seq.; Taittirīya Saṃhitā, i. 8, 1, 1 et seq.] [
Footnote: 5) See Taittirīya Saṃhitā, i. 8; Kāṭhaka Saṃhitā, xv; Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, ii. 6; Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, x.] [
Footnote: 6) Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, v. 4, 3, 1 et seq.] [
Footnote: 7) Cf. Taittirīya Saṃhitā, i. 8, 15 with commentary; Eggeling, Sacred Books of the East, 41, 100, n. 1.] [
Footnote: 8) See 2. Akṣa (p. 3)] [
Footnote: 9) viii. 21-23. Cf. Weber, Episches im vedischen Ritual, 8.] [
Footnote: 10) xiii. 5, 4.] [
Footnote: 11) xvi. 9. Cf. Eggeling, Sacred Books of the East, 41, xxiv, xxv.] [ID=2677]
