"Thrice was the steed of King Dasaratha led round the sacred fire by Kosala, and as the priests pronounced the incantations he was immolated[[103]] amidst shouts of joy.
"The king and queen, placed by the high priest near the horse, sat up all night watching the birds; and the officiating priest, having taken out the hearts, dressed them agreeably to the holy books. The sovereign of men smelled the smoke of the offered hearts, acknowledging his transgressions in the order in which they were committed.
"The sixteen sacrificing priests then placed (as commanded in the ordinances) on the fire the parts of the horse. The oblation of all the animals was made on wood, except that of the horse, which was on cane.
“The rite concluded with gifts of land to the sacrificing priests and augurs; but the holy men preferring gold, ten millions of jambunada[[104]] were bestowed on them” [79].
Such is the circumstantial account of the Asvamedha, the most imposing and the earliest heathen rite on record. It were superfluous to point out the analogy between it and similar rites of various nations, from the chosen people to the Auspex of Rome and the confessional rite of the Catholic church.
The Sankrant,[[105]] or Sivaratri (night of Siva), is the winter solstice. On it the horse bled to the sun, or Balnath.
The Scandinavians termed the longest night the ‘mother night,’[[106]] on which they held that the world was born. Hence the Beltane, the fires of Bal or Belenus; the Hiul of northern nations, the sacrificial fires on the Asvamedha, or worship of the sun, by the Suryas on the Ganges, and the Syrians (Σύροι) and Sauromatae on the shores of the Mediterranean.
The altars of the Phoenician Heliopolis, Balbee[[107]] or Tadmor,[[108]] were sacred to the same divinity as on the banks of Sarju, or Balpur, in Saurashtra, where "the horses of the sun ascended from his fountain (Surya-kund)," to carry its princes to conquest.
From Syria came the instructors of the Celtic Druids, who made human sacrifices, and set up the pillar of Belenus on the hills of Cambria and Caledonia.
When “Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill and under every tree,” the object was Bal, and the pillar (the lingam) was his symbol. It was on his altar they burned incense, and “sacrificed unto the calf on the fifteenth[[109]] day of the month” (the sacred Amavas of the Hindus). The calf of Israel is the bull (nandi) of Balkesar or Iswara; the Apis of the Egyptian Osiris [80].