Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 855

I KÂNDA, I ADHYAYA, 4 BRÂHMANA, 1.
23
with the text (Vág. S. I, 13 g), •Be ye pure for the divine work, for the sacrifice to the gods!' for it is for the divine work, the sacrifice to the gods, that he consecrates them. Whatever, that belongs to you, the impure have defiled by touching, that I hereby purify for you!' For whatever belonging to them some impure one-either a carpenter or some other impure person—has on this occasion desecrated by touching, that he thereby renders sacrificially pure for them by means of the water; and therefore he says, 'Whatever, that belongs to you, the impure have defiled by touching, that I hereby purify for you?!'
Fourth BRAHMANA. 1. He now takes the black antelope skin”, for completeness of the sacrifice. For once upon a time the sacrifice escaped the gods, and having become a black antelope roamed about. The gods having thereupon found it and stripped it of its skin, they brought it (the skin) away with them.
on one heap, and are then consecrated together by one sprinkling. According to others, each vessel must be consecrated separately. Kâty. Sr. II, 3, 39.
After he has done the sprinkling, he puts the remaining water away in some place where nobody is allowed to walk as between the pranîtâs and the Ahavanîya; or (according to Âpastamba) before, or east of, the Gårhapatya, since nobody is allowed to pass between the Gârhapatya and Âhavanîya. The two strainers also remain in the sprinkling water). Kâty. Sr. II, 3, 40.
The skin of the black antelope may be regarded as one of the symbols of Brahmanical worship and civilisation. Thus it is said in Manu II, 22–23: "That which lies between these two mountain ranges (the Himalaya and the Vindhya), from the eastern to the western ocean, the wise know as Āryâvarta (the land of the Aryas). Where the black antelope naturally roams about, that should be known as the land suitable for sacrifice; what lies beyond that is the country of the Mlekkhas (barbarians).'
Digitized by Google