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Satapatha Brahmana Part V (SBE44), Julius Eggeling tr. [1900], at sacred-texts.com


13:3:2

SECOND BRÂHMANA.

13:3:2:11. Now this (Sacrificer), having- conquered by means of the supreme Stoma--the Katushtoma, the Krita among dice 3,--on the next day establishes

p. 331

himself on the Ekavims1, as a firm foundation: from the Ekavimsa, as a firm foundation, he subsequently ascends to the next day, the seasons; for the Prishtha (-stotras) are the seasons, and the seasons are the year: it is in the seasons, in the year, he establishes himself.

13:3:2:22. The Sakvarî 2 (verses) are the Prishtha (-stotra of the second day): there is a different metre for each (verse), for different kinds of animals, both domestic and wild ones, are immolated here on each (day). As to the Sakvarî (verses) being the Prishtha, it is for the completeness of the horse (sacrifice) 3; and different kinds of animals are immolated on different (days), because different stomas are performed on the different (days of the Asvamedha).

p. 332

13:3:2:33. As to this they say, 'These--to wit, goats and sheep and the wild (beasts)--are not all animals 1; but those--to wit, the bovine (victims)--are indeed all animals.' On the last day he immolates bovine (victims), for they--to wit, bovine (victims)--are all animals: he thus immolates all animals. They are sacred to the All-gods 2, for the completeness of the horse, for the horse is sacred to the All-gods. They are many-formed (or, many-coloured), whence animals are many-formed; and they are of distinct forms (or colours), whence animals are of distinct forms.


Footnotes

330:3 For this and the other names of the dice, see part iii, p. 106, note 1.

331:1 Though applying in the first place to the second day of the Asvamedha, as an Ukthya sacrifice which is at the same time an Ekavimsa day, i.e. one the stotras of which are all chanted in the twenty-one-versed hymn-form, Ekavimsa, the twenty-first or twenty-one-fold, as is clear from XIII, 3, 3, 3, here also refers to the sun, of which it is a common epithet (cf. part iii, p. 265, note 2, also XIII, 4, 4, 11). This solar name seems to be derived from the fact that the sun is also identified with the central day of the year, the Vishuvant day, which is considered the central day of a twenty-one days’ sacrificial performance--having one prishthya-shadaha, an Abhigit (or Visvagit day resp.) and three svarasâman days before and after it;--see p. 139, note *1*; and A. Hillebrandt, Die Sonnwendfeste in Alt-Indien, p. 6 seqq.

331:2 That is to say, the so-called Mahânâmnî verses (Sâm. V. ed. Bibl. Ind. II, p. 371), chanted on the sâkvara-sâman (see part iii, of this transl., introd. p. xx, note 2), are to be used for the Hotri's Prishtha-stotra. For this purpose the Rathantara-sâman is ordinarily used in the Agnishtoma, and the Brihat-sâman in the Ukthya, form of sacrifice.

331:3 The commentator takes this as an allusion to the 'potent' (sakvara = sakta) nature of the verses.

332:1 That is to say, they do not fitly represent all kinds of animals, as the highest kind of animals, the bovine cattle, may be said to do. The argument as to the 'sarve pasavah' is, of course, suggested by the 'asvasya sarvatvâya' of the preceding paragraph; and to bring out the parallelism, one might translate,--these . . . . are not complete animals.

332:2 See XIII, 5, 3, 11.


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