Previous Year Question

The Ayodhya inscription provides important epigraphic evidence that the Sunga ruler Pushyamitra performed two Ashvamedha sacrifices. The inscription is associated with Dhanadeva and is generally assigned to the first century BCE.

The inscription describes Pushyamitra as a ruler who had performed two Ashvamedha sacrifices. It therefore establishes that he performed the Ashvamedha not merely once but twice.

Pushyamitra Sunga was originally the commander-in-chief of the Mauryan ruler Brihadratha. He killed Brihadratha and founded the Sunga dynasty around the middle of the second century BCE. Vedic sacrificial traditions received significant royal patronage during his reign.

Pushyamitra's Ashvamedha is not known only from the Ayodhya inscription. Kalidasa's Malavikagnimitra also contains an episode relating to an Ashvamedha sacrifice, in which Pushyamitra's grandson Vasumitra guards the sacrificial horse and fights the Yavanas. Patanjali's Mahabhashya also contains a reference to a sacrifice being performed for Pushyamitra.

However, the explicit epigraphic information that two Ashvamedha sacrifices were performed comes from the Ayodhya inscription. This is therefore the decisive feature for answering the question.

The Besnagar inscription is associated with the Heliodorus pillar and the Bhagavata-Vasudeva tradition. The Hathigumpha inscription is a principal source for King Kharavela of Kalinga, while the Sarnath inscriptions do not provide evidence for this particular event.