The Role of Uttaramandrā-Gāthā in the Aśvamedha: Ancient Evidence of Music for Psychological Stress

Music in the Uttaramandrā-gāna or Gāthā-gāna is an integral part of the Aśvamedha rite. In the rite, the king transferred authority to a priest for a year, and we propose that to help him deal with the resultant psychological stress, two musicians sang valorous and uplifting songs to the accompaniment of vīṇā. Thus, Uttaramandrā worked as a music therapy, and using this as the basis, we present an outline of a fourfold therapeutic model with reference to the Rasa theory of Indian aesthetics, Ayurvedic principles, and ancient accounts of musicology.