Satapatha-brahmana
by Julius Eggeling | 1882 | 730,838 words | ISBN-13: 9788120801134
This is Satapatha Brahmana XIII.3.2 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 XIII, adhyaya 3.
Kanda XIII, adhyaya 3, brahmana 2
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
1. Now this (Sacrificer), having- conquered by means of the supreme Stoma--the Katuṣṭoma, the Kṛta among dice[1],--on the next day establishes himself on the Ekaviṃśa[2], as a firm foundation: from the Ekaviṃśa, as a firm foundation, he subsequently ascends to the next day, the seasons; for the Pṛṣṭha (-stotras) are the seasons, and the seasons are the year: it is in the seasons, in the year, he establishes himself.
2. The Śakvarī[3] (verses) are the Pṛṣṭha (-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 Śakvarī (verses) being the Pṛṣṭha, it is for the completeness of the horse (sacrifice)[4]; and different kinds of animals are immolated on different (days), because different stomas are performed on the different (days of the Aśvamedha).
3. As to this they say, 'These--to wit, goats and sheep and the wild (beasts)--are not all animals[5]; 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[6], 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 and references:
[1]:
For this and the other names of the dice, see part iii, p. 106, note 1.
[2]:
Though applying in the first place to the second day of the Aśvamedha, as an Ukthya sacrifice which is at the same time an Ekaviṃśa day, i.e. one the stotras of which are all chanted in the twenty-one-versed hymn-form, Ekaviṃśa, 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 pṛṣṭhya-ṣaḍaha, an Abhijit (or Viśvajit day resp.) and three svarasāman days before and after it;--see p. 139, note *1*; and A. Hillebrandt, Die Sonnwendfeste in Alt-Indien, p. 6 seqq.
[3]:
That is to say, the so-called Mahānāmnī verses (Sām. V. ed. Bibl. Ind. II, p. 371), chanted on the śākvara-sāman (see part iii, of this transl., introd. p. xx, note 2), are to be used for the Hotṛ's Pṛṣṭha-stotra. For this purpose the Rathantara-sāman is ordinarily used in the Agniṣṭoma, and the Bṛhat-sāman in the Ukthya, form of sacrifice.
[4]:
The commentator takes this as an allusion to the 'potent' (śakvara = śakta) nature of the verses.
[5]:
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 paśavaḥ' is, of course, suggested by the 'aśvasya sarvatvāya' of the preceding paragraph; and to bring out the parallelism, one might translate,--these . . . . are not complete animals.
[6]:
See XIII, 5, 3, 11.