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1980)
1. 2. ATIHAYAT (9)
priests have gone beyond, i.e., what they have already completed is the prsthya şadaha.
It may, however, bo pointed out that in the Jaim. Br. 3.173 we are told that Prajapati created the three Chandoma days in order to connect the prsthya şadaha with the following four days (viz., the three Chandoma days and the tenth day).* In 3.174 we read Chandamsy evaitac chandoman abhy atinayanty uttarasya tryahasya sampāranaya “thus the metres themselves carry (the sacrifice) to the Chandoma days in order (further) to go beyond (the ritual of) the three days."
In view of this passage it is possible to understand 'metres as the subject of ati dyan for they are supposed to have gone beyond the prsthya şadaha.
It may also be observed in the end that we find in the Brahmaņas the use of the preterite forms when there is a reference to what the gods or the sages did in the past. Hence there is also the possibility of the gods' or the 'sages' being the subject of ati ayan.
4. In the Jaim. Br. 3. 174 the progress of the ritual form the prothya sadaha to the seventh day (i.e., the first of the three Chandoma days) is called atikranti. We may also compare atikranto va etarhi yajio bhavati saptame ahan (Jain, Br. 3. 182).
Madhu Vidyā/149
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