Animal Sacrifice - Hinduism

Hinduism

Animal sacrifice was common in Vedic religion, the highest or "royal" such sacrifice being the Ashvamedha. The last known performance of the Ashvamedha was that by Jai Singh II of Amber in 1716. The practice of animal sacrifice is rare and distasteful to the vast majority of modern Hindus, however.

Classical (Puranic, Vedantic) Hinduism as it emerged in the medieval period de-emphasizes animal sacrifice, and indeed any meat processing, based on the doctrine of ahimsa. Such practices as are still current are mostly associated with either Shaktism or with local tribal traditions.

There are Hindu temples in Assam, India as well as Nepal where goats and chickens are sacrificed. These sacrifices are mainly done at mandirs following the Shakti school of Hinduism where the female nature of Brahman is worshipped in the form of Kali and Durga. There are many village temples in Tamil Nadu where this kind of sacrifice takes place.

In many Shakti shrines of Orissa animals like goat and chicken are sacrificed on Durga Puja in the month of Aswina (September–October) every year. In Sambalpur, this ritual sacrifice is performed in the Samaleswari temple (Pasayat, 2003:67-84).

The three methods used by Hindus to kill an animal are: Jhatka (decapitation with a single blow); piercing the heart with a spike; and asphyxiation.

Animal Sacrifice en masse occurs during the 3 day long Gadhimai festival in Nepal. In 2009 it was speculated that more than 250,000 animals were killed while 5 million devotees attended the festival.

In India ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities. For instance, Kandhen Budhi is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. She is the presiding deity of Kandha people of this area. She is represented in the natural form of stone under a tree on the bank of the river Tel. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual Yatra/Jatra (festival) held in the month of Aswina (September–October). The main attraction of Kandhen Budhi Yatra is Ghusuri Puja. Ghusuri means pig, which is sacrificed once in every three years. Kandhen Budhi is also worshipped at Lather village under Mohangiri GP in Kalahandi district of Orissa, India(Pasayat, 2009:20-24).

Bali Jatra of Sonepur in Orissa, India is also an annual festival celebrated in the month of Aswina (September–October) when animal sacrifice is an integral part of the ritual worship of deities namely Samaleswari, Sureswari and Khambeswari. Bali refers to animal sacrifice and hence this annual festival is called Bali Jatra (Barik, 2009:160-162).

The religious belief of Tabuh Rah, a form of animal sacrifice of Balinese Hinduism includes a religious cockfight where a rooster is used in religious custom by allowing him to fight against another rooster in a religious and spiritual cockfight, a spiritual appeasement exercise of Tabuh Rah. The spilling of blood is necessary as purification to appease the evil spirits and ritual fights follow an ancient and complex ritual as set out in the sacred lontar manuscripts.