Sacrificial pillars are termed _Sula_ in Sanskrit; which, conjoined with Hara,[2.6.60] the Indian god of war, would be Harsula. The Rajput warrior invokes Hara with his trident (trisula) to help him in battle, while his battle-shout is ‘mar! mar!’ The Cimbri, one of the most celebrated of the six tribes of Yeutland, derive their name from their fame as warriors [68].[2.6.61] Kumara[2.6.62] is the Rajput god of war. He is represented with seven heads in the Hindu mythology: the Saxon god of war has six.[2.6.63] The six-headed Mars of the Cimbri Chersonese, to whom was raised the Irmansul on the Weser, was worshipped by the Sakasenae, the Chatti, the Siebi or Suevi, the Jotae or Getae, and the Cimbri, evincing in name, as in religious rites, a common origin with the martial warriors of Hindustan. =Rajput Religion.=—The religion of the martial Rajput, and the rites of Hara, the god of battle, are little analogous to those of the meek Hindus, the followers of the pastoral divinity, the worshippers of kine, and feeders on fruits, herbs, and water. The Rajput delights in blood: his offerings to the god of battle are sanguinary, blood and wine. The cup (kharpara) of libation is the human skull. He loves them because they are emblematic of the deity he worships; and he is taught to believe that Hara loves them, who in war is represented with the skull to drink the foeman’s blood, and in peace is the patron of wine and women. With Parbati on his knee, his eyes rolling from the juice of the phul (ardent spirits) and opium, such is this Bacchanalian divinity of war. Is this Hinduism, acquired on the burning plains of India? Is it not rather a perfect picture of the manners of the Scandinavian heroes? The Rajput slays buffaloes, hunts and eats the boar and deer, and shoots ducks and wild fowl (_kukkut_); he worships his horse, his sword, and the sun, and attends more to the martial song of the bard than to the litany of the Brahman. In the martial mythology and warlike poetry of the Scandinavians a wide field exists for assimilation, and a comparison of the poetical remains of the Asi of the east and west would alone suffice to suggest a common origin. =Bards.=—In the sacred Bardai of the Rajput we have the bard of our Saxon ancestry; those reciters of warlike poetry, of whom Tacitus says, “with their barbarous strains, they influence their minds in the day of battle with a chorus of military virtue.” A comparison, in so extensive a field, would include the whole of their manners and religious opinions, and must be reserved for a distinct work.[2.6.64] The Valkyrie [69], or fatal sisters of the Suevi or Siebi, would be the twin sisters of the Apsaras, who summon the Rajput warrior from the field of battle, and bear him to “the mansion of the sun,” equally the object of attainment with the children of Odin in Scandinavia, and of Budha and Surya in the plains of Scythia and on the Ganges, like the Elysium[2.6.65] of the Heliadae of Greece.