Editing Animal sacrifice (section)

=== Rajput traditions ===
The [[Rajput]]s of [[Rajasthan]] worship their weapons and horses on [[Navaratri]], and formerly offered a sacrifice of a goat to a goddess revered as [[Kuladevata|kuladevi]] – a practice that continues in some places.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harlan|first1=Lindsey|title=The goddesses' henchmen gender in Indian hero worship|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford [u.a.]|isbn=978-0195154269|pages=45 with footnote 55, 58–59| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HLrPYOe38gC |access-date=14 October 2016}}</ref><ref name="Goat sacrifice to Shilamata">{{cite book|last1=Hiltebeitel|first1=Alf|author-link1=Alf Hiltebeitel|last2=Erndl|first2=Kathleen M.|title=Is the Goddess a Feminist?: the Politics of South Asian Goddesses|date=2000|publisher=Sheffield Academic Press|location=Sheffield, England|isbn=978-0814736197|page=77|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQJzTr4c-g4C}}</ref> The ritual requires slaying of the animal with a single stroke. In the past this ritual was considered a rite of passage into manhood and readiness as a warrior.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harlan|first1=Lindsey|title=Religion and Rajput Women|year=1992|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, California|isbn=0-520-07339-8|pages=61, 88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HLrPYOe38gC  }}</ref> The kuladevi among these Rajput communities is a warrior-[[pativrata]] guardian goddess, with local legends tracing reverence for her during Rajput-Muslim wars.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Harlan|first1=Lindsey|title=Religion and Rajput Women|year=1992|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA|isbn=0-520-07339-8|pages=107–08|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HLrPYOe38gC }}</ref>

The tradition of animal sacrifice is being substituted with vegetarian offerings to the goddess in temples and households around  [[Varanasi]] in Northern India.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rodrigues|first1=Hillary|title=Ritual Worship of the Great Goddess: The Liturgy of the Durga Puja with interpretation|date=2003|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany, NY|isbn=07914-5399-5|page=215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=onyaEhwhJBUC |access-date=26 October 2015}}</ref>