आखेटकम्

Both saiddhAntika shaiva-s & pA~ncharAtrika have a hunting ritual where the simulate either rudra or viShNu going out on an hunt (an old IA memory now lodged in a tAntrika tradition). 1 of the days recommended for it in the PR tradition is their equivalent of the dashamI following the autumnal navarAtrI which is termed the vIralakshmy-utsava. Like with the shaiva version the image of viShNu was borne on a horse & the procession was accompanied by an armed entourage.

The association with dashamI, the traditional H day for campaign initiation (like H rulers routinely started out on campaigns against Mohammedan/preta tyrants on that day) suggests that it might have also been seen as a simulation of campaigns initiated by the god. It looks as though in some shaiva versions (e.g. raurava) man-eating animals were actually hunted - they & any human hunter who got killed in process was said to achieve shivasAyujyam. In the vaiShNava versions I’ve examined the animals were capture alive & released in front of the image of the god.