Satapatha Brahmana Part V (SBE44), Julius Eggeling tr. [1900], at sacred-texts.com
11:8:4:11. Now, once upon a time, a tiger killed the samrâg-cow 1 of those (who were sacrificing) with (the king of the) Kesin as their Grihapati 2. He (the king 3) said to his fellow-sacrificers, 'What atonement is there for this?' They replied, 'There is no atonement for this: Khandika Audbhâri alone knows an atonement for it; but he certainly desires as much as this, and worse than this 4, (to happen) to thee.'
11:8:4:22. He said, 'Charioteer, put to my horses; I shall drive thither: if so be he will tell me, I shall succeed (with my sacrifice); but if he will have me die, I shall be shattered along with the shattered sacrifice.'
11:8:4:33. Having put to the horses, he drove off, and
came thither 1. When he (Khandika) saw 2 him, he said, 'Seeing that there are those skins on deer, we break their ribs and cook them: the skin of the black antelope is attached to my neck 3--is it with thoughts such as these that thou hast dared to drive over to me?'
11:8:4:44. 'Not so,' he replied; 'a tiger has killed my samrâg-cow, reverend sir; if so be thou wilt tell me, I shall succeed; but if thou wilt have me die, I shall be shattered along with the shattered sacrifice.'
11:8:4:55. He said, 'I will take counsel with my counsellors 4.' Having called them to counsel, he said, 'If I tell him, his race, not mine, will prevail here 5,
but I shall gain the (other) world; and if I do not tell him, my own race, not his, will prevail here, but he will gain the (other) world.' They said, 'Do not tell him, reverend sir, for, surely, this (the earth) is the Kshatriya's world 1.' He replied, 'Nay, I will tell him: there are more nights 2 up yonder.'
11:8:4:66. And, accordingly, he then said to him,--'Having offered the Spritis 3, he (the Adhvaryu) should say, "Drive up another (cow)!" and that one should be thy samrâg-cow 4.'--'[Having offered. with,] "From the moon I take thy mind, hail!--From the sun I take thine eye, hail!--From the wind I take thy breathings, hail!--From the regions I take thine ear, hail!--From the waters I take thy blood, hail!--From the earth
[paragraph continues] I take thy body, hail!" let him then say, "Drive up another (cow)!" and that one shall be thy samrâg cow!' He then departed from thence 1, and, verily, members of the Kesin race are born here even to this day.
131:1 That is the cow which supplies the milk for the Pravargya; this milk, when heated, being called 'gharma (heat)' or 'samrâg (sovereign king).' See part ii, p. 104, note 3.
131:2 Grihapati, or house-lord, master of the house, is the title of the principal sacrificer at a sacrificial session (sattra).--According to Sâyana, the Kesinah were a race of nobles (râgânah), who, on this occasion, were performing a 'sattra,' and are therefore styled 'householders' (grihapati);--kesino nâma râgânah sattrayâgam anutishthanto grihapataya âsuh, Sâyana thus takes 'kesi-grihapatayah,' not as a bahuvrîhi, but as a tatpurusha (karmadhâraya, 'the Kesin householders') which would, however, require the accent on the second member of the compound.--Though all those taking part in a sacrificial session ought to be Brahmans, the rule does not seem to have been strictly observed. Cf. part iv, introd., p. xxv; Weber, Ind. Stud. X, pp. 25 94.
131:3 Grihapatishu pradhânabhûtah kesirâgah, Sây.
131:4 That is, that even a greater misfortune should happen to thee,--atyantam pâpayuktam govadhâdidoshayuktam ity arthah, Sây.
132:1 Sâyana makes Khandika the subject of this last verb:--sa ha ratham asvaih samyogya Khandikasamîpam yayau; soऽpi Khandikah kesinam âgagâma, gatvâ ka vivaktam (? viviktam) Kesinam pratikhyâya nirâkritya sadayam eva prathamam uvâka. He thus seems not to allow here to 'yâ' the meaning of 'to drive,' but to take 'yayau' in the sense of 'he went thither.' It might, of course, also mean 'he set off.'
132:2 Sâyana apparently takes 'prati-khyâ' in the sense of 'to refuse admittance to, to reject,' 'abweisen.'
132:3 Sâyana's comment on this passage is as follows:--'O Kesin, the skin of the cow that yields the gharma-milk is worn by thee on the neck: those (i.e. suchlike) skins, indeed, are (i.e. are seen) on deer; and having broken (i.e., torn to pieces) the "prishti" (i.e. the small-sized does) amongst them we cook them: that black-antelope skin is fastened on my neck.' Khandika having spoken thus, the king said, 'No, this is not my intention.'
132:4 Literally, those that should be consulted, whom further on Sâyana calls 'âptâh' or trusty men.
132:5 Or, perhaps, the people here (the Kesins) will become his, not mine; cf. Delbrück, Altind. Syntax, pp. 32; 141 (two different renderings). Sâyana, on the other hand, takes 'pragâ,' not in the sense either of 'family' or 'people,' but in that of '(sacred) knowledge'--perhaps with reference to the threefold science (the Veda) as the p. 133 thousandfold progeny of Vâk, speech (cf. IV, 5, 8, 4; 6, 7, 3; V, 5, 5, 12)--which Khandika would thus lose, whilst, by imparting the sacred knowledge, he would gain a seat in heaven.
133:1 Sâyana's comment is not very intelligible, the MS. being more than usually corrupt on this last page:--evamvidhe virodha udbhâvitê sati to âptâ ûkuh, he bhagavo vidyâm mâ vokah, kshatriyasya loko na bhavishyatîti; nanu tavânusayah (? appanage, domain, following) sa tasya nâsti; ayam vâva ayam eva khalu, kshatriyasya lokas tasmât sauspatrâter (?) evam ukte sati sadvekenarâpatra bhavânti (!) ato vakshyâmy evety uvâka.
133:2 That is, days,--by giving up a brief life of earthly power and glory, he gains eternal life.
133:3 That is, oblations performed with a view of 'taking hold (spri)' of something; cf. Katy. Srautas. XXV, 6, 11. 12.
133:4 The particle 'iti' here causes some difficulty of construction which would be removed by the latter clause being taken as part of the Adhvaryu's speech; though Kâtyâyana, it is true, does not recognise it as such. Perhaps, however, Khandika's speech ends here, and what follows up to 'that one shall be thy samrâg-cow' has to be taken as a ritualistic insertion, in which case the final 'iti' would have some such meaning as 'having been told thus.'
134:1 Sâyana takes this thus:--'Thus instructed, Kesin disappeared (or, passed away, vanished, utsasâda vinashtah) from that region (tato desât)'--after which there is a lacuna in the MS. Perhaps, however, it is Khandika, rather than Kesin, to which this refers,--he (and his race) then, indeed, passed away from that region, whilst the Kesins flourished.