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( 173 ) When horse is killed in Aswamedha, the Chief Queen along with King's other three wives and a maiden, attended by four hundred female attendants, comes to the dead horse ; there is an obscene ceremonial recorded by Vājasaneyisamhita and Kșsna-Yajurveda Samhitā. The chief queen had to lie down with the dead horse under one cover in a state of actual sexual intercourse. The learned author concludes from this ceremonial that, in that hoary past, there obtained mass sexual intercourse without any idea of father, mother, son, daughter and sister. Devas took part in this promiscuous sexual intercourse in the presence of fire by the side of the altar itself. He finds this event as a social reality.
This institution of Puruşamedha is well recollected in Šāåkhyāyana Srauta Sūtra where the chief lady is given as lying down with the dead man in a state of sexual intercourse. It preserves in its chapter on Purusamedha” the practice of human sacrifice in ancient times which was faithfully continued in the later Aswamedha. The obscene ceremonial which was a prominent feature of Puruşamedha also continued alive in Aswamedha.
What is, then, the real character of Puruşamedha ? Keith, along with other scholars, believes in the existence of human sacrifice at some period of history, but he is unable to give its real character. He, like other scholars, gives only the ritual character of the institution as contained in the ritual literature i. e. later Vedas, Brāhmaṇas and Sūtras. **
☆gveda preserves the memory of ancient human sacrifice in the famous Puruşasūkta. Puruşa or Prajāpati was sacrificed by Devas. 28 Taittīrīya Brāhmaṇa elaborates it. It refers to the diffusion of Prajapati in the beings and his restoration to life through horse-sacrifice. 24 This ritual
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