KathaUpanishad

precious to himself, and his children, the next after him, and accordingly would be
deemed the most appropriate to be offered as a sacrifice; though generaly speaking,
the main object of woship, in early times, having been the temporal good of the
worshipper, it was by means convenient for him to offer himself as a sacrifice for it.
Children particularly when there happened to be several in the family, could be more
readily spared, and they would accordingly more frequently given up for the purpose."
'"The following sunmmry of the conclusions which may be fairly drawn from the facts
cited above:....
2nd. That the Sunahsepha hymns of te Rik Sanhita most probably refer to human
sacrifice.
3rd. That Aiterya Brahman refers to an actual and not a typical human sacrifice.
4th That the Purushamedha originally required the actual sacrifice of men.
5th. That the Satapatha Brahmana sanctions human sacrifice in some cases, but
makes the Purushamedha emblematic
6th. That the Taittiriya Brahmana enjoins the sacrifice of a man at the Horse sacrifice.
7th. That the Puranas recognize human sacrifice ...
8th. That the Tantras enjoin human sacrifice...."
(On Human Sacrifices in Ancient India: Raja Rajendra Mitra, Journal of Asiatic Society
of Bengal, Vol XLV, Part 1, 1976)
A 1933 journal of the Assam Research Society says that living people were sacrificed
until the reign of King Gaurinath Singha between 1780 and 1796. Records of earlier
periods at the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies indicate that the
practice was widespread in Assam.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1908706.stm)
Satapatha Brahmana Part V (SBE44), Julius Eggeling tr. [1900], at sacred-texts.com
13:6:2:12-13 states "By means of the Purusha Nârâyana (litany), the Brahman priest
(seated) to the right (south) of them, praises the men bound (to the stakes) with this
sixteen-versed (hymn, Rig-v. X, 90, Vâg. S. XXXI, 1-16), 'The thousand-headed
Purusha, thousand-eyed, thousand-footed --thus (he does) for the obtainment and the
18