Satapatha-brahmana

by Julius Eggeling | 1882 | 730,838 words | ISBN-13: 9788120801134

This is Satapatha Brahmana X.4.5 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 5th brahmana of kanda X, adhyaya 4.

Kanda X, adhyaya 4, brahmana 5

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. Now the doctrines of mystic imports[1]. The Śākāyanins hold that 'Agni is Vāyu (the wind);' but some say that 'Agni is Āditya (the sun).' And either Śraumatya, or Hāliṅgava, said, 'Agni is no other than Vāyu: wherefore the Adhvaryu, when he performs the last work[2], passes into that (wind).'

2. And Śāṭyāyani said, 'Agni is no other than the Year; his head is the spring, his right wing the summer, his left wing the rainy season, his middle body (trunk) the autumn season, and his tail and feet the winter and dewy seasons--Agni is speech, Vāyu breath, the sun the eye, the moon the mind, the quarters the ear, the generative power water[3], the feet (and tail) fervour, the joints the months, the veins the half-moons, the silver and gold feathers the days and nights: thus he passes over to the gods.' Let him know, then, that Agni is the Year; and let him know that it is thereof[4] he consists.

3. And Celaka Śāṇḍilyāyana said, 'Let him know that the three layers containing the naturally-perforated (bricks)[5] are these worlds, that the fourth (layer) is the Sacrificer, and the fifth all objects of desire; and that it is these worlds, and his own self and all his objects of desire he compasses.'

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Athānantaram upaniṣadāṃ rahasyārthānām ādeśā upadeśā vakṣyante. Sāy.--Prof. Oldenberg (Zeitsch. of G. Or. S., 50, p. 457 seq.) takes 'upaniṣad' in the sense of 'worship.'

[2]:

That is, the concluding rites of the sacrifice,--tasmād adhvaryuḥ yadā uttamaṃ yajñasamāptilakṣaṇam karma karoti, tadaitam eva vāyum apyeti, tathā hi, samiṣṭayajurhome devā gātuvido gātuṃ vittvā gātum ita manasaspata iti mantre'vāci, svāhā vāte dhāḥ svāhā, iti vāyau dhāraṇam uktam. Sāy. See IV, 4, 4, 53, where the sacrifice (though not the Adhvaryu priest) is consigned to the wind by means of the Samiṣṭayajus formulas.

[3]:

Note the change in the relative position of subject and predicate from here.

[4]:

That is, of the objects enumerated before.

[5]:

That is, the first, third, and fifth layers. By the fourth and fifth layers mentioned immediately after, we have not of course to understand the real fourth and fifth layers, but the two making up the five layers (viz. the second and fourth).

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