But only emperors who were worthy of asking Heaven for its benediction dared to go to Mount Tai, ascend the mountain, and perform a sacrifice to Heaven there.
When the flood receded, Manu, the sole human survivor, performed a sacrifice, pouring oblations of butter and sour milk into the waters.
The Kangxi Emperor did not actually perform a sacrifice on Mount Tai, but the very fact that a Manchu emperor would go to this sacred mountain, climb it, and record that event in a painting for all posterity was something that reverberated throughout the empire.
Of a sentence such as "one desirous of heaven should perform a sacrifice," then, Śabara would mainly ask: do you understand the sentence?
For example, a chief priest would fast and meditate before he performed a sacrifice.
The emperors ordered all members of the court to perform a sacrifice to purify the palace.
The mural with pyramids depicts a lounging Cleopatra-esque woman, while another features an "exotic priestess" performing a sacrifice and a volcano.
The poem focuses on two scenes: one in which a lover eternally pursues a beloved without fulfilment, and another of villagers about to perform a sacrifice.
The first occurs when the warrior Arjuna being overcome with compassion against killing his opposing relatives in war, receives counsel (see Bhagavad-Gita) from Krishna about his spiritual duty ("work as though you are performing a sacrifice for the general good").
Before Decius's reign, persecution of the Christians in the empire had been sporadic and local, but about the beginning of January 250 he issued an edict ordering all citizens to perform a religious sacrifice in the presence of commissioners.
