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 878

46
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
spirits, the Rakshas, should seize upon it; for Agni (fire) is the repeller of the Rakshas: this is the reason why he carries fire round it.
14. He bakes it, with the text (Vâg. S. I, 22): Let the divine (or God) Savitri bake thee!' for it is not a man that bakes it, but a god it is: therefore it is the God Savitri that bakes it ?. He adds: 'In the highest heaven!' He means to say among the gods,' when he says in the highest heaven. He touches it: 'I will ascertain whether it is done!' thus (he thinks, and) for that reason he touches it.
15. He touches it, with the text (Våg. S. I, 23): Be not afraid ! shrink not!' He thereby says: 'Do not thou be afraid, do not thou shrink, because I, a man, touch thee that art not human!'
16. When it is done, he covers it over (with hot ashes) : 'Lest the evil spirits, the Rakshas, should espy it,' thus (he thinks); and 'Lest it should lie, as it were, naked and despoiled!' thus also (he thinks) :—that is the reason why he covers it over.
17. He covers it over, with the text (Vág. S. I, 23): "May the sacrifice not be liable to languish, nor the sacrificer's race liable to languish!' That the sacrifice or the sacrificer may not languish after this, when I cover this over,' thus (he thinks, and) for this reason he covers it over in this manner (i. e. with the above text).
On the upper side it is baked by burning straw put on or held over it, whereby it takes a crust (tvak, skin'). Schol. on Käty. II, 5, 23.
. With the name of no other God the epithet deva (shining,' God') is so frequently used as with that of Savitri: hence, according to the author's reasoning, it is he that must be intended, whenever a god not otherwise specified is alluded to.
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