Satapatha-brahmana

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

This is Satapatha Brahmana X.6.4 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 4th brahmana of kanda X, adhyaya 6.

Kanda X, adhyaya 6, brahmana 4

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. Verily, the dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse[1], the sun its eye, the wind its breath, Agni Vaiśvānara (the fire belonging to all men) its open mouth. The year is the body of the sacrificial horse, the sky its back, the air its belly, the earth the under part of its belly, the quarters its flanks, the intermediate quarters its ribs, the seasons its limbs, the months and half-months its joints, the days and nights its feet, the stars its bones, the welkin its flesh, the sand its intestinal food, the rivers its bowels, the mountains its liver and lungs, the herbs and trees its hair, the rising sun the forepart, and the setting sun the hindpart of its body, the lightning its yawning, the thundering its whinnying, the raining its voiding urine, and speech its voice. The day, indeed, was produced as the Mahiman[2] (cup) before the horse, and its birthplace is in the eastern sea. The night was produced as the Mahiman (cup) behind (or after) it, and its birth-place was in the western sea: these two Mahiman (cups), indeed, came to be on both sides of the horse. As Haya (steed) it carried the gods, as Vajin (racer) the Gandharvas, as Aryan (courser) the Asuras, as Aśva (horse) men. The sea, indeed, is its kindred, the sea its birth-place.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

That is, of Prajāpati, in the form of a horse. For this and the next chapters see the beginning of the Kāṇva recension of the Bṛhad-āraṇyakopaniṣad.

[2]:

This is the name of two gold cups used at the Aśvamedha; cf. XIII, 2, 11, I seq.; 5, 2, 23.

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