Madhuvidya

SR No.: 006525
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 762
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Literature, & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

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M. A. MEHENDALE
so often in this section of the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa. This (ud-) *jhayati can be derived from IE root * ghéi 'verlassen, fortgehn' which is given by WALDEPOKORNY I 542-43 and POKORNY 5.418-19. *jhayati (1st conj. cf. Avestan participle uzayanto) is obviously akin to Sk. jahāti (3rd conj.) 'abandon, etc.' going back to IE * ghé, from which we have the past participle ujjhita (ud + * ghitá) with the same prefix as in * ujjhayati.10 With this explanation the text under consideration would mean that the drawing of the seventeen Surāgrahas was intended for symbolising the abandoning (and not winning) of ansta, pāpman, and tamas. When ujjayati occurs in the expression ubhe andhasi ujjayati we have naturally to suppose that here both ujjayati and * ujjhayati have fallen together so that once ujjayati means 'wins' when it refers to Soma, and once it means 'abandons (as coming from * ujjhayati) when it refers to Surā.
The passage quoted at the commencement of this article can now be translated, with the necessary changes in EGGELING'S translation, as follows: "He (the Adhvaryu) then draws seventeen (other) cups of Soma, and (the Neşti) seventeen cups of Surā. These two (saps of) plants, to wit the Soma and the Surā, belong to Prajāpati; of these two the Soma is truth, prosperity, light; and the Surā is untruth, misery, darkness. Both these very (saps of) plants he thereby (respectively) wins (ujjayati) and abandons (ujjayati <*ujjhayati); for he who offers the Vājapeya wins everything here, since he wins Prajāpati and Prajapati is indeed everything here ...... And why he draws seventeen cups of Sură; - Prajāpati is seventeen-fold, Prajāpati is the sacrifice: as great as the sacrifice is, as great as is its measure, with that much he thus abandons its untruth, its misery, its darkness. These two amount to thirty-four cups; for there are thirty-three gods, and Prajāpati is the thirty-fourth; he thus wins Prajāpati."
It may now be shown that the above interpretation of the passage based on the two-fold derivation of ujjayati is supported by the ritual practice of the Vājapaya and further by a literary usage in the Mundaka Upanişad. First then to the ritual. The method of drawing and disposal of these two sets of cups, viz. those of Soma and of Surā, clearly show that it was intended from the beginning to keep a complete distinction between the two, and that the two were not allowed to co-mingle. The two were purchased separately, had a separate entrance, separate drawing, separate placing, and separate disposal. This procedure is a clear pointer to the fact that there was no question of 'winning the Surāgrahas and what it stood for, not also
10. Sk. ujjhati 'leaves, gives up, etc.' occurring from the epics is clearly a new formation from ujjhita as already noted by UHLENBECK (Kurz. Et. W.). His other explanation based on WACKERNAGEL L 164 is not probable. For the above explanation of ujjhita sud-hd through ud-zhitá see LEUMANN IF 58.20 ff. (1942).
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