Ashvamedha
E106386
Ashvamedha is an ancient Vedic horse sacrifice ritual performed by kings to assert imperial sovereignty and divine approval of their rule.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ashvamedha canonical | 5 |
| Ashvamedha sacrifice | 2 |
| Ashvamedha yajna | 2 |
| Ashvamedha Yajna | 1 |
| Ashwamedha Yajna | 1 |
| Aśvamedha | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T902398 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashvamedha Context triple: [Yajurveda, usedIn, Ashvamedha]
-
A.
Ashvamedhika Parva
Ashvamedhika Parva is a major book of the Indian epic Mahabharata that narrates Yudhishthira’s post-war horse sacrifice (Ashvamedha) and the associated philosophical and moral teachings.
-
B.
Heraia
Heraia was an ancient Greek women’s athletic festival and footrace held at Olympia in honor of the goddess Hera.
-
C.
Palashi
Palashi is a town in West Bengal, India, historically renowned as the site of the pivotal 1757 Battle of Plassey that marked the beginning of major British colonial dominance in India.
-
D.
Magahi
Magahi is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Bihar and surrounding regions.
-
E.
Kurukshetra War
The Kurukshetra War is the legendary epic battle at the heart of the Indian Mahabharata, depicting a vast dynastic struggle between the Pandavas and Kauravas that explores themes of duty, righteousness, and fate.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ashvamedha Target entity description: Ashvamedha is an ancient Vedic horse sacrifice ritual performed by kings to assert imperial sovereignty and divine approval of their rule.
-
A.
Ashvamedhika Parva
Ashvamedhika Parva is a major book of the Indian epic Mahabharata that narrates Yudhishthira’s post-war horse sacrifice (Ashvamedha) and the associated philosophical and moral teachings.
-
B.
Heraia
Heraia was an ancient Greek women’s athletic festival and footrace held at Olympia in honor of the goddess Hera.
-
C.
Palashi
Palashi is a town in West Bengal, India, historically renowned as the site of the pivotal 1757 Battle of Plassey that marked the beginning of major British colonial dominance in India.
-
D.
Magahi
Magahi is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the Indian state of Bihar and surrounding regions.
-
E.
Kurukshetra War
The Kurukshetra War is the legendary epic battle at the heart of the Indian Mahabharata, depicting a vast dynastic struggle between the Pandavas and Kauravas that explores themes of duty, righteousness, and fate.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Vedic ritual
ⓘ
horse sacrifice ⓘ royal ritual ⓘ |
| associatedWithDeity |
Indra
ⓘ
Prajapati ⓘ
linked to:
Purusha
Surya ⓘ |
| coreElement |
final sacrificial ceremony
ⓘ
military protection of the horse ⓘ sacrifice of a consecrated horse ⓘ year-long wandering of the horse ⓘ |
| describedIn |
Mahabharata
ⓘ
Ramayana ⓘ Rigveda ⓘ Shatapatha Brahmana ⓘ Yajurveda ⓘ |
| ethicalDebate | criticized in later Hindu and modern discourse for animal sacrifice ⓘ |
| genderAspect | involves participation of the chief queen ⓘ |
| geographicRegion |
Indian subcontinent
ⓘ
linked to:
South Asia
|
| languageOfPrimaryTexts | Vedic Sanskrit ⓘ |
| modernStatus | no longer practiced as an actual animal sacrifice ⓘ |
| performedBy |
Hindu kings
ⓘ
Vedic kings ⓘ |
| politicalMeaning |
acknowledgment of overlordship by neighboring rulers
ⓘ
expansion of king’s domain ⓘ |
| purpose |
assert imperial sovereignty
ⓘ
obtain divine approval of kingship ⓘ royal consecration ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
cosmic order (rita)
ⓘ
kingship ⓘ sacrifice ⓘ |
| relatedRitual | Rajasuya ⓘ |
| religiousTradition |
Hinduism
ⓘ
Vedic religion ⓘ
linked to:
Vedic Hinduism
|
| requires |
a faultless stallion
ⓘ
large priestly participation ⓘ substantial material resources ⓘ |
| ritualDuration | one year ⓘ |
| ritualSpecialists |
adhvaryu priest
ⓘ
brahman priest ⓘ hotr priest ⓘ udgatr priest ⓘ |
| socialFunction |
display of royal power
ⓘ
political integration of territories ⓘ public religious spectacle ⓘ |
| symbolicUse | used metaphorically for supreme sovereignty ⓘ |
| textualGenre | srauta ritual ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Vedic period ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ashvamedha Description of subject: Ashvamedha is an ancient Vedic horse sacrifice ritual performed by kings to assert imperial sovereignty and divine approval of their rule.
Referenced by (12)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Ashvamedha
linked to: Ashvamedha
linked to: Ashvamedha
subject linked to:
brought Nagamani from the Nagaloka to revive Arjuna
linked to: Ashvamedha
linked to: Ashvamedha
linked to: Ashvamedha