Satapatha-brahmana
by Julius Eggeling | 1882 | 730,838 words | ISBN-13: 9788120801134
This is Satapatha Brahmana XIII.2.1 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 1st brahmana of kanda XIII, adhyaya 2.
Kanda XIII, adhyaya 2, brahmana 1
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
THE FIRST SOMA-DAY (AGNIṢṬOMA)[1].
1. Prajāpati assigned the sacrifices to the gods; the Aśvamedha he kept for himself. The gods said to him, 'Surely, this--to wit, the Aśvamedha--is a sacrifice: let us have a share in that also.' He contrived these Anna-homas (food-oblations) for them: thus when he performs the Annahomas, it is the gods he thereby gratifies.
2. With ghee he makes offering, for ghee is fiery mettle: by means of fiery mettle he thus lays fiery mettle into him (the horse and Sacrificer). With ghee he offers; for that--to wit, ghee--is the gods’ favourite resource: it is thus with their favourite resource he supplies them.
3. With parched groats he makes offering; for that--to wit, parched groats--are a form of the gods[2]: it is the gods he thus gratifies.
4. With grain he makes offering; for this--to wit, grain--is a form of the days and nights[3]: it is the days and nights he thus gratifies.
5. With parched grain he makes offering; for this--to wit, parched grain--is a form of the Nakṣatras[4] (lunar asterisms): it is the Nakṣatras he thus gratifies. He offers whilst mentioning names, with (Vāj. XXII, 23-33), 'To the in- (and out-) breathing hail! to the off-breathing hail[5]!' . . . he thus gratifies them by mentioning their names. [Vāj. S. XXII, 34], 'To one hail! to two hail! . . . to a hundred hail! to a hundred and one hail!' He offers in the proper order: in the proper order he thus gratifies them (the gods). He performs oblations successively increasing by one[6], for single, indeed, is heaven: singly he thus causes him (the Sacrificer) to reach heaven. Straight away[7] he offers in order to the winning of heaven; for straight away, as it were, is heaven.
6. But, verily, he who offers the oblations straight away[8], is liable to fall (pass) right away. He does not go beyond a hundred and one: were he to go beyond a hundred and one, he would deprive the Sacrificer of his vital power. He offers a hundred and one, for man has a life of a hundred (years), and his own self is the one hundred and first: he thus establishes himself in a self (or body), in vital power. With 'To the Dawn hail! to Heaven hail!' he offers the two last oblations; for the dawn is the night, and heaven (the realm of light) is the day: it is day and night he thus gratifies.
7. As to this they say, 'Were he to offer both either by day or by night, he would confound day and night with one another[9].' With 'To the Dawn hail!' he offers before the sun has risen, and with 'To Heaven hail' when it has risen, to avoid confusion between day and night.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
There are three Sutyās, or Soma-days, at the Aśvamedha--viz. an Agniṣṭoma, an Ukthya, and an Atirātra--the most important p. 296 of which is the central day. The first day offers no special features, as compared with the ordinary Agniṣṭoma; except that the stotras are chanted on the 'catuṣṭoma' model (see note to XIII, 3, 1, 4); and that the animal sacrifice of this day requires twenty-one sacrificial stakes, with twice eleven victims, two of which are tied to the central stake; see note on XIII, 2, 5, 2. The offerings referred to in the present Brāhmaṇa, are performed, not during the day itself, but during the following night, as a preliminary to the important features of the second Soma-day.
[2]:
Viz., according to the commentary, because of the (particles of) groats being connected with each other.
[3]:
The commentary does not explain this comparison. It would seem to suit better the parched grain.
[4]:
Viz. on account of the capability (samarthatvāt) of the (raw) grains; but whether this is meant to refer to their power of germinating and growing is not explained.
[5]:
These eleven anuvākas consist of altogether 149 such short dedicatory formulas--addressed to the vital airs, the regions, the waters, wind, fire, &c.--each ending with 'svāhā (hail).' These are followed, in anuvāka 34, by formulas addressed to the cardinal numbers from 1 to 101; succeeded by two formulas addressed to the dawn and to heaven respectively,--all of these again ending with 'svāhā.' The Annahomas themselves, offered by the Adhvaryu's assistant, the Pratiprasthātṛ, are not, however, limited to any number; but their performance is to be continued throughout the night in such a way that each of the four three-hours’ watches of the night is to be taken up with as many oblations of one of the four kinds of offering materials--in the order in which they are enumerated in the text--as can be got into the space of three hours. The formulas addressed to the cardinal numbers--(which are on no account to extend beyond 101)--are apparently supposed amply to suffice to fill up the time till dawn, when the Adhvaryu makes an oblation of ghee to the Dawn, followed by one to Heaven (or the realm of light) after sunrise.
[6]:
That is, in offering with the formulas addressed to the cardinal numbers.
[7]:
That is to say, without repeating any formula, or commencing again from the beginning, when the whole series is exhausted.
[8]:
That is, without stopping.
[9]:
There is no 'iti' here; and the quotation, therefore, may perhaps extend to the end of the paragraph.