Satapatha-brahmana
by Julius Eggeling | 1882 | 730,838 words | ISBN-13: 9788120801134
This is Satapatha Brahmana X.1.2 English translation of the Sanskrit text, including a glossary of technical terms. This book defines instructions on Vedic rituals and explains the legends behind them. The four Vedas are the highest authortity of the Hindu lifestyle revolving around four castes (viz., Brahmana, Ksatriya, Vaishya and Shudra). Satapatha (also, Śatapatha, shatapatha) translates to “hundred paths”. This page contains the text of the 2nd brahmana of kanda X, adhyaya 1.
Kanda X, adhyaya 1, brahmana 2
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
1. Prajāpati was desirous of gaining these worlds. He saw this bird-like body, the Fire-altar: he fashioned it, and thereby gained this (terrestrial) world. He saw a second bird-like body, the (chant of the) Great Rite 1: he fashioned it, and thereby gained the air. He saw a third bird-like body, the Great Litany[1]: he fashioned it, and thereby gained the sky.
2. This built Fire-altar, doubtless, is this (terrestrial) world, the Great Rite the air, and the Great Litany the sky: all these, the Fire-altar, the Great Rite, and the Great Litany, one ought therefore to undertake together, for these worlds were created together; and as to why the Fire-altar is built first, it is because of these worlds this (terrestrial) one was created first. Thus with regard to the deity.
3. Now with regard to the body. The Fire-altar is the mind, the (chant of the) Great Rite the breath, and the Great Litany speech: all these one ought therefore to undertake together, for mind, breath, and speech belong together; as to why the Fire-altar is built first, it is because the mind is prior to the breathings.
4. The Fire-altar, indeed, is the body (trunk), the Great Rite the breath, and the Great Litany speech: all these one ought therefore to undertake together, for body, breath, and speech belong together; and as to why the Fire-altar is built first, it is because of him who is produced the trunk is produced first.
5. The Fire-altar, indeed, is the head, the Great Rite the breath, and the Great Litany the body:
one ought therefore to undertake all these together, for head, breath, and body belong together; and as to why the Fire-altar is built first, it is because of him who is born the head is born first; and hence, whenever all these are undertaken together the Great Litany, indeed, is accounted the highest (ātamām)[2], for the Great Litany is the body (or self, ātman).
6. As to this they say, 'If all these are difficult to obtain together, what (means of) obtaining them is there?'--In the Jyotiṣṭoma (form of the) Agniṣṭoma[3]: let him perform offering with the Jyotiṣṭoma Agniṣṭoma.
7. In this Jyotiṣṭoma Agniṣṭoma the Bahiṣpavamāna (stotra) is (in) the Trivṛt (stoma)--that is the head of the rite; the two other Pavamānas are (in) the Pañcadaśa and Saptadaśa (stomas)--they are the two wings; the Hotṛ's
Ājya (stotra) is (in) the Pañcadaśa, the Pṛṣṭha (stotra in) the Saptadaśa, and the Yajñāyajñiya (stotra in) the Ekaviṃśa (stoma)--they are the tail.
8. Now these two, the Pañcadaśa and Saptadaśa, have thirty-two hymn-verses: twenty-five of these are the twenty-five-fold body[4]; and the seven which remain over are the Parimād (sāmans), for these are the cattle (or animals), (for) cattle are sporting all around us (pari-mād[5])--thus much, then, is the
Great Rite: thereby he obtains the Great Rite even in this (Agniṣṭoma).
9. And the Hotṛ recites seven metres--each subsequent one-versed (metre) increasing by four (syllables)--with the Virāj as an eighth: these (eight) consist of three eighties and forty-five syllables. Now by the eighties thereof the eighties (of the mahad uktham)[6] are obtained, for the Great Litany is counted (or recited) by eighties (of triplets); and of the forty-five (syllables which remain) twenty-five are this twenty-five-fold body[7]; and where the body is there, indeed, are (included) the head, and the wings and tail; and the twenty (syllables which remain) are the insertion[8];--thus much, then, is the Great Litany: thereby he obtains the Great Litany even in this (Agniṣṭoma). All these (three) are indeed obtained in the Jyotiṣṭoma Agniṣṭoma: let him, therefore, perform offering with the Jyotiṣṭoma Agniṣṭoma.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
The Mahāvrata-sāman and the Mahad uktham, as we have seen (p. 282, note 5; p. 111, note 1), are constructed so as to correspond to the different parts of the bird-like Agni-Prajāpati.
[2]:
The combination 'ātamāṃ khyāyate' is, as it were, the superlative of 'ā-khyāyate;' cf. anutamāṃ gopāyati, X, 5, 2, 10; and Delbrück, Altind. Syntax, p. 194.
[3]:
The Agniṣṭoma may be performed in three different modes, according to the variation of stomas (or hymn-forms) employed for the stotras (or chants). In the Jyotiṣṭoma the order of stomas is that set forth in paragraph 7, viz.: a. Bahiṣpavamāna-stotra in the Trivṛt (nine-versed); b. Ājya-stotras, and c. Mādhyandina-pavamāna-stotra, in the Pañcadaśa (fifteen-versed); d. Pṛṣṭha-stotras, and e. Ārbhava-pavamāna-stotra, in the Saptadaśa (seventeen-versed); and f. Agniṣṭoma-sāman (Yajñāyajñiya) in the Ekaviṃśa (twenty-one-versed) stoma, or hymn-form. In the Goṣṭoma, on the other hand, the succession of stomas is a. Pañcadaśa, b. Trivṛt, c. d. Saptadaśa, e. f. Ekaviṃśa; and in the Āyuṣṭoma: a. Trivṛt, b. Pañcadaśa, (c. d.) Saptadaśa, (e. f.) Ekaviṃśa. Cf. part ii, p. 402, note 4; for the scheme of Stotras (and Sastras), ib. p. 325, note 2. The Agniṣṭoma is singled out here for the reason that the Mahāvrata-day takes the form of an Agniṣṭoma sacrifice.
[4]:
See p. 168, note 3.
[5]:
Sāyaṇa takes 'parimād' here in the sense of 'a source of pleasure all around'--parito harshahetavaḥ.--The Parimādaḥ are thirteen Sāmans sung (not chanted, in the proper sense of the word) by the Udgātṛ, his two assistants joining merely in the Nidhanas or chorus-like passages. They are given, figured for chanting, in the Araṇyagāna of the Sāma-veda (Calc. ed., ii, p. 387 seq.). This performance takes place immediately after the Adhvaryu has given the sign for, and the Udgātṛ 'yoked,' the Mahāvrata-stotra or sāman (i. e. the Hotṛ's Pṛṣṭhastotra of the Great Rite),--or, according to some authorities, before either the 'yoking,' or the Adhvaryu's summons,--and thus serves as an introduction to the central and chief element of the Great Rite, the Mahāvrata-sāman. According to the ritual symbolism, these preliminary sāmans are intended to supply the newly completed Prajāpati with hair (feathers) and nails; but the performance would rather seem to he a solemn mode of doing homage (upasthānam) to the different parts of the bird-like altar and the sacrificial ground; thus corresponding to a similar, though simpler, ceremony performed on the completion of the fire-altar in its simplest form, as described at IX, 1, 2, 35-43. On the present occasion the ceremony is performed in the following order: 1. near the head of the altar (the Āhavanīya fire) he sings the Prāṇa ('breath;' Sāma-v., vol. ii, p. 436); 2. near the tail the Apāna (downward-breathing, ii, p. 437); 3. 4. near the right and left wing the two Vratapakṣau (ii, p. 438); 5. near the left armpit the Prajāpati-hṛdaya ('heart of Praj.,' ii, p. 499); 6. near the Cātvāla or pit, the Vasiṣṭhasya Nihava (Sāma-v., vol. v, p. 602); 7. near the Āgnīdhra hearth the Satrasyarddhi ('success of the sacrificial session,' ii, p. 465); 8. 9. in front and behind the Havirdhāna carts, the Śloka and Anuśloka (i, pp. 887-9); p. 289 10. towards the Mārjālīya the Yāma (ii, p. 461); 11. 12. in front and behind the Sadas, the Āyus, and Navastobha (ii, pp. 450-51); 13. in front of the Gārhapatya the Ṛśyasya sāman (ii, p. 324).
[6]:
See p. 112, note 1.
[7]:
Viz. the body, as consisting of the ten fingers, the ten toes, the arms and legs, and the trunk.
[8]:
Towards the end of the Mahad Uktham, in the portion representing the thighs, nine triṣṭubh verses (Ṛg-veda III, 43, 1-8, and X, 55, 5) are inserted as an 'āvapanam..'