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104
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
moons: it is, therefore, the half-moons which he obtains by this recitation. In havis rich' he further says, because those that are rich in havis (milk, butter) are the cattle; it is cattle, therefore, that he thereby obtains through the recitation.
10. With buttered (spoon)— he adds. Now Måthava, the (king of) Videgha", carried Agni Vaisvānara in his mouth. The Rishi Gotama Rahagana was his family priest. When addressed (by the latter), he made no answer to him, fearing lest Agni might fall from his mouth.
11. He (the priest) began to invoke the latter with
1 To this important legend attention was first drawn by Professor Weber, Ind. Stud. I, 170 seq. (cf. also Ind. Streifen, I, p. 13; J. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, II, p. 402). It was pointed out by Weber that this legend distinguishes three successive stages of the eastward migration of the Brâhmanical Hindus. In the first place the settlements of the Aryans had already been extended from the Pañgab (where they were settled in the times of the hymns of the Rig-veda) as far as the Sarasvati. They thence pushed forward, led by the Videgha Mathava and his priest, according to our legend, as far east as the river Sadânîrâ (that is, 'she that is always filled with water '), which, according to Sâyana, is another name for the Karatoya (the modern Kurattee, on which Bograh lies), which formed the eastern boundary of the Videhas; or more probably the Gandaki (the modern Gunduck, a noble river which falls into the Ganges opposite Patna, and) which formed the boundary between the Kosalas and the Videhas (cf. par. 17). It would appear from our legend, that for some time the Aryans did not venture to cross this river; but at the time of the author the country to the east of it had long been occupied by them. Sâyana takes the hero of the legend to be Videgha, the Madhava or son of Madhu; but: Videgha, an older form of Videha, is more probably intended here (as Weber takes it for the name of that people and country (corresponding to the modern Tirhut). The Agni Vaisvânara (or Agni who is common to all men) of our legend Professor Weber considers a personification of Brâhmanical worship and civilisation and the destructive effects of their extension.
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| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| 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 |