Upnishad

SR No.: 007670
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1879
Total Pages: 1835
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 35 MB

Page 274

I ARANYAKA, I ADHYÂYA, 3 KHANDA, 2.
161
the Virág metre, (they become) the perfection which belongs to that day (the mahảvrata). Then they also become Anushtubh ?, for the offerings of agya (ghee) dwell in Anushtubhs 8.
THIRD KHANDAS. 1. Some say: 'Let him take a Gayatri hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Gayatri is brightness and glory of countenance, and thus the sacrificer becomes bright and glorious.'
2. Others say: 'Let him take a Ushnih hymn for the Pra-uga. Verily, Ushnih is life, and thus the sacrificer has a long life.'
Others say: 'Let him take an Anushtubh hymn
verses. Therefore the eighteen Virág verses remain what they are, only that the first is repeated three times, so that we have twenty Virág verses. The seven Trishtubhs, by repeating the last three times, become nine. We then take eight syllables away from each verse, thus changing them into nine Brihatî verses. The nine times eight syllables, which were taken off, give us seventytwo syllables, and as each Brihati consists of thirty-six syllables, two Brihatis.
1 The change of the first verse, which is a Virág of thirty-three syllables, into an Anush/ubh is produced by a still easier process. The first Virág consists here of thirty-three syllables, the Anushrubh should have thirty-two. But one or two syllables more or less does not destroy a metre, according to the views of native metricians. The Virag itself, for instance, should have thirty syllables, and here has thirty-three. Therefore if changed into an Anush/ubh, it simply has one syllable over, which is of no consequence. Comm.
Cf. Ait. År. I, 1, 1, 4.
Thus far the hymn which has to be recited by the Hotri. priest, after the eating of the ritugrahas, has been considered. What follows next is the so-called Pra-uga hymn, consisting of seven trikas, which the Hotri has to recite after the Visvedevagraha. Different Sakhâs recommend hymns of different metres, our Såkhâ fixes on the Gayatri. [3]
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