Satapatha Bramhana Part 02

SR No.: 007678
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1885
Total Pages: 2521
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 44 MB

Page 116

III KÂNDA, 3 ADHYAYA, 4 BRÂHMAVA, 18.
81
17. Thereupon he recites the Subrahmanya litany. Even as one would say to those for whom he intends to prepare a meal, 'On such and such a day I will prepare a meal for you ;' so does he thereby announce the sacrifice to the gods. Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm! Subrahmanyôm!' thus he calls, for the Brahman indeed moves the gods onward. Thrice he says it, because the sacrifice is threefold.
18. Come, O Indra!' Indra is the deity of the sacrifice: therefore he says, 'Come, O Indra!' 'Come, o lord of the bay steeds! Ram of Medhâtithi?! Wife of Vrishanasva?! Bestriding buffalo! Lover of Ahalya'!' Thereby he wishes him joy in those affairs of his.
1 This myth, according to which Indra was supposed to have assumed the form of a ram and to have carried off Medhâtithi, the Kânva (or, according to others, to have robbed him of his Soma), appears to be alluded to in Rig-veda VIII, 2, 40. On the possible connection of the myth with the Greek one of Ganymede, see Weber, Ind. Stud. IX, p. 40. Sâyana does not explain the Subrahmanyâ formula, but remarks, that he has already done so in the Sáma-brahmana (viz. in the Shadvimsa).
. According to Rig-veda I, 51, 13, Indra became the wife (mena) of Vrishanasva (Mena); the reason for this transformation being, according to the Shadvimsa Br., that he was in love with Menâ or Menaka, the daughter of that king (or sage). Ind. Stud. I, p. 38. The later explanation of the simple statement of the Rik seems of doubtful authenticity, unless the choice of the word menâ for wife' was intended by the bard as an allusion to the name of the king's daughter. It is more likely that the myth alluded to in the Rik had been forgotten at the time of the Brahmanas, and a new version of it was invented, based on the 'mena' of the original. Haug, Transl. Ait. Br. p. 383, takes Menâ here as a name.
* This is another of Indra's love-myths about which very little is known. Ahalya (Maitreyî) is said to have been the wife of the Rishi Gautama (or of Kausika, according to Shady. Br.) and to have been loved by Indra.
[26]
Digitized by Google