The handsome, wandering stallion helped reconcile Ram and his sons. Ironically, as per the Ashwamedha guidelines, he must have been slaughtered shortly afterwards. Poor guy!
Ashwamedha
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It gets more interesting after the return of the horse.
Here’s the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashvamedha
“Then the horse is slaughtered (YV VSM 23.15, tr. Griffith)
Steed, from thy body, of thyself, sacrifice and accept thyself.
Thy greatness can be gained by none but thee.
The chief queen ritually calls on the king’s fellow wives for pity. The queens walk around the dead horse reciting mantras. The chief queen then has to mimic copulation with the dead horse, while the other queens ritually utter obscenities.[2]
On the next morning, the priests raise the queen from the place where she has spent the night with the horse. With the Dadhikra verse (RV 4.39.6, YV VSM 23.32), a verse used as a purifier after obscene language.
The three queens with a hundred golden, silver and copper needles indicate the lines on the horse’s body along which it will be dissected. The horse is dissected, and its flesh roasted. Various parts are offered to a host of deities and personified concepts with utterances of svaha “all-hail”. The Ashvastuti or Eulogy of the Horse follows (RV 1.162, YV VSM 24.24–45), concluding with:
May this Steed bring us all-sustaining riches, wealth in good kine, good horses, manly offspring
Freedom from sin may Aditi vouchsafe us: the Steed with our oblations gain us lordship!
The priests performing the sacrifice were recompensed with a part of the booty won during the wandering of the horse. According to a commentator, the spoils from the east were given to the Hotar, while the Adhvaryu a maiden (a daughter of the sacrificer) and the sacrificer’s fourth wife.)”
Happened to come across your site. Fall in love with your caricatures