Horses Symbol Analysis

Horses play an important role in the battle scenes of Mahabharata, giving soldiers extra mobility by allowing them to move around in chariots, and so they represent the relationship between humanity and nature. The most important horse in the poem is the one that Yudhishthira sacrifices in a horse ceremony after the Kurukshetra War to reaffirm his control over his kingdom. Before killing the horse, Yudhishthira lets it free to wander the entire span of his kingdom (with Arjuna’s protection). The horse’s long journey demonstrates how fully Yudhishthira controls both humanity and nature in his domain after the war.

On the one hand, humans work in tandem with horses in chariots on the battlefield, showing humanity’s harmonious connection to nature. But ultimately, many horses die over the course of the war, and Yudhishthira’s sacrifice of the horse at the end symbolizes humanity’s power over nature. But in spite of the sacrifice, this does not necessarily mean that humanity must have a violent relationship with nature. Other parts of the poem praise nonviolence, and at one point Krishna advises against eating meat, at least for certain situations and certain classes of people. In the end, humanity’s role as a leader over nature is a way for humans to show respect and devotion to the gods who created nature, and with the horse sacrifice, Yudhishthira demonstrates his understanding of this balance between humanity, nature, and the gods.