Kanda XIII, adhyaya 2, brahmana 2

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

THE SECOND SOMA-DAY (UKTHYA).

1. Verily, this--to wit, the Aśvamedha--is the king of sacrifices. But, indeed, the Aśvamedha is the Sacrificer, (for) the sacrifice is the Sacrificer: when he (the priest) binds victims to the horse (or, at the horse-sacrifice), he then, indeed, takes hold^[1] of the sacrifice at the sacrifice.

2. 'A horse, a hornless he-goat, and a Gomṛga^[2]' these they bind to the central stake: thereby, indeed, he (the priest) sharpens the front of his (the Sacrificer's) army^[3], whence the front of the king's army is sure to become terrible.

3. A black-necked (he-goat), sacred to Agni, in front (of the horse) to its forehead^[4]: the original (hall) fire he makes it, whence the king's hall-fire is sure to be (efficient)^[5].

4. An ewe, for Sarasvatī, beneath the (horse's) jaws: he thereby makes women to be dependent, whence women are sure to be attendant upon man.

5. Two (he-goats), black on the lower part of the body^[6], for the Aśvins, (he ties) to the front legs: he thereby lays strength into the front legs, whence the king is sure to be strong in the arm^[7].

6. A dark-grey (he-goat) for Soma and Pūṣan at the (horse's) navel: a foothold he makes this one; for Pūṣan is this (earth): it is thereon he establishes himself.

7. A white one and a black one, for Sūrya and Yama, on the flanks: a suit of armour he makes those two: whence the king, clad in mail, performs heroic deeds.

8. Two, with shaggy hind thighs, for Tvaṣṭṛ, to the hind legs: he lays strength into the thighs, whence the king is sure to be strong in his thighs.

9. A white one, for Vāyu, to the tail,--an elevation he makes this one, whence people in danger betake themselves to an elevated place^[8];--a cow wont to cast her calf, for Indra, the ever active, in order to associate the sacrifice with Indra;--a dwarfish one for Viṣṇu; for Viṣṇu is the sacrifice: it is in the sacrifice he (the Sacrificer) thus finally establishes himself.

10. These, then, are the fifteen 'paryaṅgya' (body-encircling)^[9] animals,--for fifteenfold is the thunderbolt, and the thunderbolt means manly vigour: with that thunderbolt, manly vigour, the Sacrificer now repels evil from in front^[10] (of the sacrifice).

11. And fifteen (victims), indeed, are (bound) to each of the other (stakes);--for fifteenfold is the thunderbolt, and the thunderbolt means manly vigour: with that thunderbolt, manly vigour, the Sacrificer now repels evil on both sides^[11] (of the sacrifice).

12. As to this they say, 'Does he really repel evil by these?' And, indeed, he does not make up the complete Prajāpati, and does not here gain everything.

13. Let him rather bind seventeen animals to the central stake^[12]; for seventeenfold is Prajāpati, and the Aśvamedha is Prajāpati,--thus for the obtainment of the Aśvamedha. And sixteen (victims he binds) to each of the other (stakes), for of sixteen parts (kalā) consists all this^[13] (universe); all this (universe) he thus gains.

14. 'How is he to appease^[14] these?' they ask. 'Let him appease them with the Bārhaduktha verses^[15], "Enkindled, anointing the lap of the faithful(f.) . . .;" for Bṛhaduktha, the son of Vāmadeva, or Aśva, son of Samudra, saw these very (verses) to be the āprī-verses of the horse: it is by means of these we appease it,' so they say. But let him not do so; let him appease it with the Jāmadagna verses; for Jamadagni is Prajāpati, and so is the Aśvamedha: he thus supplies it with its own deity; let him therefore appease (the victims) with the Jāmadagna verses^[16].

15. Now some make the invitatory-formulas and the offering-formulas (to be pronounced) separately for the 'paryaṅgyas,' saying, 'For these we find (formulas)--for the others, on account of not finding any, we do not use them^[17].' Let him not do so;

for the horse is the nobility (chieftain), and the other animals are the peasantry (clan); and those who do this really make the peasantry equal and refractory to the nobility; and they also deprive the Sacrificer of his vital power. Therefore the horse alone belongs to Prajāpati^[18], and the others are sacred to the gods: he thus, indeed, makes the peasantry obedient and subservient to the nobility; and he also supplies the Sacrificer with vital power.

16. The slaughtering-knife of the horse is made of gold, those of the 'paryaṅgyas' of copper, and those of the others of iron; for gold is (shining) light, and the Aśvamedha is the royal office: he thus bestows light upon the royal office. And by means of the golden light (or, by the light of the gold), the Sacrificer also goes to the heavenly world; and he, moreover, makes it a gleam of light shining after him, for him to reach the heavenly world.

17. But, indeed, the horse is also the nobility; and this also--to wit, gold--is a form (symbol) of the nobility: he thus combines the nobility with the nobility.

18. And as to why there are copper (knives) for the 'paryaṅgyas,'--even as the non-royal kingmakers, the heralds and headmen, are to the king, so those 'paryaṅgyas' are to the horse; and so, indeed, is this--to wit, copper--to gold: with their own form he thus endows them.

19. And as to why there are iron ones for the others,--the other animals, indeed, are the peasantry, and this--to wit, iron--is a form of the peasantry: he thus combines the peasantry with the peasantry. On a rattan mat (lying) north (of the Āhavanīya) they cut the portions of the horse(-flesh); for the horse is of anuṣṭubh nature, and related to the Anuṣṭubh is that (northern) quarter: he thus places that (horse) in its own quarter. And as to (his doing so) on a rattan mat,--the horse was produced from the womb of the waters^[19], and the rattan springs from the water: he thus causes it to be possessed of its own (maternal) womb.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ārabhate prāpnoti, comm.; it might also be rendered by 'he enters upon the sacrifice.'

[2]:

This (and the identical passage XIII, 5, 1, 13) looks like a quotation, as if quoted from Vāj. S. XXIV, 1; where are p. 299 likewise found the references to the other victims and their places, in paragraphs 2-9. Possibly, however, the 'iti' may be used here with a kind of 'deiktic' force (cf. the similar use in XIII, 2, 8, 1); if, indeed, it does not simply refer to 'gomṛga,' i.e. 'the animal called Gomṛga.' (lit. 'bovine deer'), regarding which see note on XIII, 3, 4, 3.--Though the victims to be immolated on this day are first dealt with in this and the following Brāhmaṇas, their slaughter only takes place at the usual time at every Soma-sacrifice, viz. after the Sarpaṇam (XIII, 2, 3, 1 seqq.), the chanting of the Bahiṣpavamāna Stotra, and the drawing of the Āśvina-graha. On the present occasion these ceremonies are preceded by the drawing of the Mahiman cups of Soma (see XIII, 2, 11, 1 seqq.); whilst the chant is followed by the driving up of the victims, and the putting to of the horse, and the driving to the water, treated of in XIII, 2, 6, 1 seqq.

[3]:

Harisvāmin takes this to mean that he makes the (sacrificial) horse, i.e. the king, alone the head of the army,--rājabhūtam apy aśvaṃ senāmukham ekaṃ karotīty arthaḥ.

[4]:

According to the comments on Vāj. S. XXIV, 1, and Kāty. XX, 6, 4, a rope is wound round the horse's body in the same way as it is done with a bottle-gourd (lagenaria vulgaris), and it is to this rope that these so-called 'paryaṅgyāh (circumcorporal),' or victims surrounding the (horse's) body, would then be tied.

[5]:

The commentator explains 'bhāvuka' by 'sādhur bhavati;' and he adds that this is important inasmuch as numerous magic rites, such as rites for insuring success and averting evil (śāntikapauṣṭika), and incantations (ābhicārika) are performed thereon. It is the name here assigned to this, the Āvasathya, fire, viz. 'pūrvāgni' or, original fire--with its secondary meaning 'front-fire'--which is seized upon by the author for symbolically identifying it with the victim fastened in front (or to the front) of the horse.

[6]:

Mahīdhara takes 'adhorāma' to mean 'white-coloured on the lower part of the body.'

[7]:

The word 'bāhu' means both 'arm' and 'front leg.'

[8]:

That is, a mountain, a palace, high ground, &c., comm. ('vāyur hi skandhasyocchrita ity abhiprāyaḥ').

[9]:

Here the encircled horse itself, and the other two victims p. 301 tied directly to the central stake, are improperly included in the term 'paryaṅgya.'

[10]:

Viz. inasmuch as the sacrificial stake to which the horse is tied (and hence the victims fastened thereto) is the so-called 'agniṣṭha' stake, or the one standing opposite to (directly in front of) the Āhavanīya fire.

[11]:

Viz. inasmuch as these other stakes stand in a line to the north (left) and south (right) of the central stake. Whilst, in the case of a simple 'ekādaśinī' (cf. III, 7, 2, 1 seqq.) there would be five stakes on each side of the central one, at the Aśvamedha there are to be twenty-one stakes, or ten on either side of the central stake. See XIII, 4, 4, 5 seqq.

[12]:

These seventeen victims do not include the twelve paryaṅgyas which are tied to different parts of the horse's body, but only to those which are actually tied to the central stake,--viz. the horse and its two immediate neighbours (paragraph 2), then twelve victims (enumerated Vāj. S. XXIV, 2, beginning with three victims of different shades of red, rohita), and lastly two beasts belonging to two sets of eleven victims finally superadded to the sets of fifteen victims tied in the first place to the stakes. Cf. note on XIII, 2, 5, 2.

[13]:

Regarding this division into sixteen parts, as applied to man, the animal, and the universe, see Weber, Ind. Stud. IX, p. 111 with note.

[14]:

Or, 'what Āprīs (appeasing verses) is he to pronounce over them?' These verses are pronounced as the offering-formulas (yājyā) at the fore-offerings of the animal sacrifice. See part ii, p. 185, note 1.

[15]:

Viz. Vāj. S. XXIX, 1-11.

[16]:

Viz. Vāj. S. XXIX, 25-36, beginning, 'Enkindled in the house of man this day, a god, thou worshippest the gods, O Jātavedas.'

[17]:

The commentator takes this to mean that, inasmuch as these paryaṅgyas--here improperly including the horse itself and the two other victims of Prajāpati at the central stake--are assigned to commonly invoked deities, formulas relating to these would easily p. 303 be found; whilst in the case of the other twelve victims tied to the central stake (see p. 301, note 3), as well as those of the other stakes--though they, too, are assigned to definite deities--some of their deities (as in the case of three a year and a half old heifers assigned to Gāyatrī, Vāj. S. XXIV, 21), are such as to make it difficult to find suitable formulas for them:--eteṣām aśvādīnāṃ prajāpatvādikā yājyānuvākyās tāḥ kim iti na pṛthak kurmaḥ; itareṣāṃ rohitādīnāṃ na vindāmaḥ, tryavayo gāyatryādayo devatās taddevatyāś ca durlabhā lakṣaṇopetā yājyānuvākyā ity abhiprāyaḥ.

[18]:

The invitatory-formula and offering-formula are, however, pronounced once for the 'paryaṅgyas' (including the horse) in common, whilst a second pair of formulas are used for the other victims in common.

[19]:

See VI, 1, 1, 11 (V, 1, 4, 5).