The rite was aimed at ensuring agricultural fertility.
The sacrifices may have been associated with rites of ancestral renewal and agricultural fertility.
It also stems from a long existing cultural valuation of India's agricultural fertility in ritual and practice.
It has had an old symbolism and association with agricultural fertility.
This pinpoints the area's sands, hence low agricultural natural fertility as being key to the reason for extensive heath and woodlands.
She is regularly associated with Ceres in rituals pertaining to the earth and agricultural fertility.
The area had a substantial population which grew prosperous from the region's renowned agricultural fertility.
Among the most common mask forms is the antelope with its long horns and alert ears - an important spiritual animal associated with agricultural fertility.
Ceres, the Roman goddess of agricultural fertility, is particularly important.
It is thought that the saurian represents the surface of the earth, which relates to agricultural fertility.