Which royal sacrifice of the later Vedic period involved the release of a horse to mark the extent of a king's authority?
- A.Rajasuya
- B.Vajapeya
- C.Ashvamedha
- D.Agnistoma
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, the ashvamedha, the horse sacrifice. A horse was set free to wander for a year, guarded by the king's soldiers; every territory it crossed unchallenged was counted as accepting his overlordship, and the animal was then sacrificed with great ceremony.
Option A, the rajasuya, was the consecration sacrifice performed when a king took power, said to confer supreme authority on him. Option B, the vajapeya, was a chariot race that the king was expected to win, performed to raise his standing among his kinsmen. Option D, the agnistoma, was a soma sacrifice, not one of the specifically royal rites. These three royal sacrifices mark the change from the Rigvedic rajan, a tribal leader with no regular revenue, to the later Vedic king with claims over land, and papers regularly ask you to match each sacrifice with its purpose.
Read the full article: Vedic Age: Rigveda, Society and Later Vedic Changes
Practice Questions
View allWhich Veda is considered the origin of Indian classical music?
- A.Rigveda
- B.Samaveda
- C.Yajurveda
- D.Atharvaveda
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Its verses are largely borrowed from the Rigveda but are arranged to be sung to fixed melodies during sacrifices, and those melodies are the earliest record of musical notation in India, which is why the Samaveda is called the root of Indian classical music.
Read the full explanation →The Battle of Ten Kings, the Dasarajna, was fought on the banks of which river?
- A.Vitasta
- B.Shutudri
- C.Parushni
- D.Asikni
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The seventh mandala of the Rigveda describes how Sudas, the king of the Bharata tribe, defeated a confederacy of ten tribes on its banks, and the battle is the clearest political event recorded in the whole of Rigvedic literature.
Read the full explanation →The Purusha Sukta, the hymn that first mentions the four varnas, occurs in which mandala of the Rigveda?
- A.Third mandala
- B.Seventh mandala
- C.Ninth mandala
- D.Tenth mandala
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The Purusha Sukta describes the sacrifice of the cosmic being from whose parts the brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra are said to have come, and it is the first statement of the fourfold varna order.
Read the full explanation →Which god is invoked in the largest number of hymns in the Rigveda?
- A.Agni
- B.Indra
- C.Varuna
- D.Prajapati
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He is the god of rain and of war, called Purandara, the breaker of forts, and the largest number of Rigvedic hymns is addressed to him, which matches a people whose life turned on rainfall and on cattle raids.
Read the full explanation →In the Rigveda, which river is described as the naditama, the holiest of rivers?
- A.Ganga
- B.Sindhu
- C.Saraswati
- D.Yamuna
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The Rigveda praises it as the naditama, the best or holiest of rivers, and treats it as a goddess as well as a stream.
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