Rajasuya (Sanskrit: \u0930\u093e\u091c\u0938\u0942\u092f, romanized: R\u0101jas\u016bya, lit. ‘king’s sacrifice’) is a \u015arauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king.[1] 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.[2]\nDescription [edit]\n15 languages
\nKing Yudhishthira, a character in the Mahabharata, performs the rajasuya sacrifice
\nThe rajasuya is associated with the consecration
\nof a king[1] and is prescribed as a means to
\nestablish a king’s sovereignty.[3] It is described in
\nthe Taittiriya corpus, including Apastamba Srauta
\nSutra 18.8\u201325.22.[1] It involves soma pressing, a
\nchariot drive, the king shooting arrows from his
\nbow, and a brief “cattle raid”.[1] The newly anointed king seizes cattle belonging to his relative, and then gives part of his property to that relative.[4] There is a telling of the tale of Shunahshepa, a boy who was nearly sacrificed to Varuna on behalf of the sonless king Harishchandra.[1] 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.[1] The Shatapatha Brahmana states that the rajasuya was the means by which a Kshatriya may become a king, and is not suitable for Brahmanas.[5]\nHistorically, the rajasuya was performed by the Indo-Aryan kings, which led to the expansion of their kingdoms during the Iron Age.[6] The kings of Tamilakam performed the rajasuya, attended by monarchs of Lanka.[7] Kharavela, the king of Kalinga, is described to have performed the rajasuya, despite being a Jain.[8] The Satavahana kings performed the ceremony.[9] The sacrifice was performed by kings throughout the subcontinent, recorded to have been performed in South India at least until the time of the Vijayanagara Empire.[10]\nSeealso [edit] R\u0101jy\u0101bhi\u1e63eka
\nAshvamedha<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rajasuya (Sanskrit: \u0930\u093e\u091c\u0938\u0942\u092f, romanized: R\u0101jas\u016bya, lit. ‘king’s sacrifice’) is a \u015arauta ritual of the Vedic religion. It is ceremony that marks a consecration of a king.[1] According to the Puranas, it refers to a great sacrifice … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-area2","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 04:37:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}