Posted by Panku on January 22, 2007 at 21:38:32:
From the Indian mythology:
The king Hariscanda has 100 wives but no sons and is advised by priests to ask the god Varuna a son with the promise that he will sacrifice the son after birth.
But after the son Rohita is born, the king goes on postponing when finally the son rejects the idea and goes to forest. Prompted by gods he wanders and finds a starving brahmin Ajigarta who
had three sons Sunapuccha (dog-tail), Sunahsepa (dog-male-member) and Sunolangula dog-hindquarters).
Rohita offers 100 cows for one of the sons to act as his replacement for the sacrifice and the father agrees.
The father insists on retaining the eldest, the mother retains the youngest, and both
compromise on the middle son to replace the prince in the sacrifice for money.
Visvamitra acts as priest at the rite which occurs during the Rajasuya or coronation of King Harischandra, and the father is willing to bind and hack his son for more money.
Then Sunahsepa prays to Prajapati and other gods who answer his prayers and loosen his bonds. The king Harischandra is cured of an ailment of dropsy. Visvamitra asks to adopt Sunahsepa to be the oldest of his 100 sons to which the latter agrees. Fifty of the sons refuse to accept Sunahsepa and are condemned by their and take to the forest to become dog-cooking tribes.
Sunahsepa's descendants became recognized as coming from the two great brahmin clans of Vasistha by birth, and Visvamitra by adoption.
The Hindu holy books stated that the story of Sunahsepa and the royal dog sacrifice should be told to each king during the coronation or Rajasuya ceremony.
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