Satapatha-brahmana
by Julius Eggeling | 1882 | 730,838 words | ISBN-13: 9788120801134
This is Satapatha Brahmana V.5.3 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 3rd brahmana of kanda V, adhyaya 5.
Kanda V, adhyaya 5, brahmana 3
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
1. When he has performed the Consecration-ceremony (Abhishecanīya), he does not shave his hair. The reason why he does not shave his hair (is this):--that collected essence of the waters wherewith he is then sprinkled (anointed) is vigour, and it is the hair (of his head) that it reaches first when he is sprinkled; hence were he to shave his hair, he would cause that glory to fall off from him, and would sweep it away: therefore he does not shave his hair.
2. He does not shave his hair for a year[1],--religious observance is of equal measure with the year, hence he does not shave for a year: the Keśavapanīya[2], namely, is a (day of) praise-singing (stoma) with the view of the termination of the religious performance.
3. Twenty-onefold is (each stotra of) its Morning-service, seventeenfold (of) the Midday-service, fifteen-fold (of) the Evening-service, together with the Uktha (stotras), the Ṣoḍaśin, and (the twelve stotras of) the Night-service.
4. The Twilight (hymn)[3] is (performed in the) Trivṛt (stoma), and with the Rathantara (tune). For the twenty-onefold (stoma) is he that burns yonder (the sun); from that twenty-onefold one he (the Sacrificer) parts, and descends again to the seventeenfold one; from the seventeenfold one to the fifteenfold one; and from the fifteenfold one he plants his foot on this firm footing, the Trivṛt (stoma).
5. The Rathantara is the Pṛṣṭha (stotra)[4] of this (sacrifice); for the Rathantara is this (earth): it is on her, as on a firm footing, he thereby plants his feet. It is an Atirātra (sacrifice),--the Atirātra is a firm footing: therefore it is an Atirātra.
6. He only cuts down his hair, but does not shave it; for that collected essence of the waters with which he is sprinkled is vigour, and it is the hair that it reaches first when he is sprinkled. Thus were he to shave off his hair he would cause that glory to fall off from him, and would sweep it away. But when he cuts it down, he attaches that glory to his own self: therefore he only cuts down his hair, but does not shave it. This is for him a religious observance: as long as he lives he does not stand on this (earth with bare feet[5]).
7. From the throne-seat he slips into the shoes; and on shoes (he stands), whatever his vehicle may be, whether a chariot or anything else. For verily he who performs the Rājasūya is high above everything here, and everything here is beneath him;--therefore this is for him a religious observance: as long as he lives he does not stand on the earth (with bare feet).
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
He is, however, allowed to shave his heard. According to Lāṭy. Sr. IX, 2, 20 seq., he is to pass his nights during the year in the fire-house on a tiger's skin; he is never to enter the village, and is constantly to keep up the fire. Nor is any one in his kingdom, except a Brāhman, to get his hair cut, and even the horses are to remain unclipped.
[2]:
The Keśavapanīya, or 'hair-cutting' (sacrifice), the fourth of the seven Soma-sacrifices enjoined for the inauguration of a king, is to be performed on the full-moon of Jyeṣṭha (about p. 127 May 1), a twelvemonth after the Abhishecanīya, and is to take the form of the Atirātra-Jyotiṣṭoma. As usual, the author only alludes to any special peculiarities from the ordinary performance. The ordinary ascending scale of stomas--viz. the Trivṛt-stoma for the Bahiṣpavamāna-stotra, the Pañcadaśa for the Ājya-stotras and the Mādhyandina-pavamāna; the Saptadaśa for the Pṛṣṭha-stotras, and the Tṛtīya-pavamāna; and the Ekaviṃśa-stoma for the Agniṣṭoma-sāman--prescribed for the twelve stotras of the Agniṣṭoma (part i, p. 310 seq.), is to be reversed on the present occasion, and the scale of stomas is to be a descending one. The succeeding stotras--viz. (13-15) the three Uktha-stotras; (16) the Ṣoḍaśin; and (17-28) the three rounds of the night service requiring four stotras each--are likewise to be performed in the Pañcadaśa (or fifteen-versed) stoma, employed for the hymns of the evening pressing.
[3]:
The Sandhi-stotra, or Twilight hymn, Sāma-veda II, 99-104, is the final stotra of the Atirātra (part ii, p. 398). Each of the three couplets is, as usual, sung as a triplet, the three thus producing the nine verses of the Trivṛt-stoma. The Rathantara tune, to which the couplets are to be sung, is given in the Uhyagāna (Sāma-veda, vol. v, p. 381), but with different verses, viz. Sāma-veda I, 30, 31 (abhi tvā śūra nonumo), the verses most commonly sung to that famous tune. The chanters' manuals of the Atirātra (e. g. Ind. Off. MS. 1748) accordingly adapt the tune to the verses here required (enā vo agniṃ namaso).
[4]:
The first (or Hotṛ's) Pṛṣṭha-stotra at the midday-service is either the Rathantara, Sāma-veda II, 30, 31 (as for instance at the Agniṣṭoma), or Bṛhat-sāman II, 159-160 (as at the Ukthya sacrifice). The Bṛhat is also ordinarily chanted at the Atirātra, but on the present occasion the Rathantara is to be substituted for it.
[5]:
Sāyaṇa interprets this passage so as to imply two separate injunctions:--'For as long as he lives this (cutting down of his hair) is a religious observance for him; and he does not stand on the ground (without shoes).' The repetition in the next paragraph, however, renders this interpretation very improbable.