Editing Animal sacrifice (section)

=== Folk traditions ===
In some [[sacred groves of India]], particularly in western [[Maharashtra]], animal sacrifice is practiced to pacify female deities that are supposed to rule the groves.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Gadgil|first=M|author2=VD Vartak|title=Sacred Groves of India|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History|year=1975|volume=72|issue=2|page=314|url=http://repository.ias.ac.in/64199/1/14-pub.pdf}}</ref>

In India, ritual of animal sacrifice is practised in many villages before local deities or certain powerful and terrifying forms of the [[Devi]]. In this form of worship, animals, usually goats, are decapitated and the blood is offered to deity often by smearing some of it on a post outside the temple.<ref>{{cite book|author= James G. Lochtefeld|title= The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A–M|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5kl0DYIjUPgC&q=animal+sacrifice+in+hinduism&pg=PA41|publisher= [[Rosen Publishing|The Rosen Publishing Group]]|page= 41|year= 2002|isbn= 978-0823931798}}</ref> For instance, ''Kandhen Budhi'' is the reigning deity of Kantamal in Boudh district of Orissa, India. Every year, animals like goat and fowl are sacrificed before the deity on the occasion of her annual ''Yatra''/''Jatra'' (festival) held in the month of ''Aswina'' (September–October). The main attraction of ''Kandhen Budhi Yatra'' is ''Ghusuri Puja''. ''Ghusuri'' means a child pig, which is sacrificed to the goddess every three years. Kandhen Budhi is also worshipped at Lather village under Mohangiri GP in Kalahandi district of Orissa, India.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2009/September/engpdf/20-24.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2015-02-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318073208/http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2009/September/engpdf/20-24.pdf |archive-date=2012-03-18 }}</ref> (Pasayat, 2009:20–24).{{full citation needed|date= January 2015}}

The religious belief of ''Tabuh Rah'', a form of animal sacrifice of [[Balinese Hinduism]] includes a religious [[cockfight]] where a rooster is used in religious custom by allowing him to fight against another rooster in a religious and spiritual cockfight, a spiritual appeasement exercise of ''Tabuh Rah''.<ref>Bali Today: Love and social life By Jean Couteau, Jean Couteau, et al. p.129 {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xn2ljrOw0IwC&dq=Tabuh+Rah&pg=PA129 |title = Bali Today: Love and social life|isbn = 9789799101150|last1 = Couteau|first1 = Jean|year = 2008| publisher=Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia }}</ref> The spilling of blood is necessary as purification to appease the evil spirits, and ritual fights follow an ancient and complex ritual as set out in the sacred ''lontar'' manuscripts.<ref>{{cite book|title = Indonesia |first1= Joshua|last1= Eliot|first2= Liz|last2= Capaldi|first3= Jane |last3= Bickersteth|publisher =Footprint Handbooks|date = 2001 |page= 450 |isbn = 1900949512}}</ref>