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In Shatpath Brahmana (13.1.6) it is stated "Rashtram va
asvamedhah" i.e. Asvamedha means to manage or run the affairs of the
rashtra (country) in a befitting manner.
Now to deal with the insinuation of the animal or cattle sacrifice in
the Vedic texts the following is stated:
On p.32 of the book (ref.53), citing the RgVeda IV.18.13, it is stated
that the entrails of a dog were cooked in a situation of extreme destitution.
T.V.(transliterated version) reads: avartya suna antrani pece na
deveshu vivide marditaram apasyam jayam amahiyamanam adha me syeno
madhv a jabhara
H.H. Wilson's translation of Bashya by Sayanacarya reads as
follows:
"In the extreme destitution I have cooked the entails of a dog: I
have not found a comforter among the gods: I have beheld my wife
disrespected: then the falcon, (Indra), has brought to me sweet water".
In the English version of the Bhashya by Sw. Dayanand, it is stated
that this hymn deals with the duties of a ruler and it is translated as follows:
"0 king! I see you as one who provides protection from the mean
person, who elopes with my disrespected wife like a falcon. Such a wicked
person cannot achieve genuine knowledge from the enlightened persons.
You must severe your connections from such a man". The purport of this
verse is aptly summed up as "0 king! You should destroy men and women
of debaucherous nature after giving them severe punishment".
In the Hindi Bhashya by Sw.Dayanand, it is elaborated as follows:
0 king! One who takes over my disrespected wife like a hawk who
digests the non-usable body of a dog comprising of non-usable `nadis' entrails
should be punished...(The wicked man has been likened to a hawk or falcon
who pounces on the dog's body and digests the same). The word 'pece'
here means one who digests and not the one who cooks as per Wilson's
version.
In the RgVeda Samhita with English translation by Swami Satya
Prakash Sarasvati and Satyakam Vidyalankar, this hymn reads as follows:
"Finally the self, so lamented, in extreme destitution: What a shame
to me that I have committed a hineous crime as if cooking the entails of a
dog (having forgotten my Lord). I could find no comfort among Nature's
material forces. Before my own eyes I have seen my wife, the beloved,
disrespected. Then the enlightenment, in the form of falcon from heaven,
comes down and brings the sweet water".
[Manu, refers to a legend; Vamadeva, when oppressed with hunger,
took for his meals the flesh of dogs, but who was not thus rendered impure;
this he did for the preservation of his life. (Manu X.106)]
The above verse in no way supports consumption of dog's meat.
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