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 135

100
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
consecration, and the lord of penance my penance! Thereby he enters upon the intermediary consecration. More closely he turns in his fingers, and closer he draws the zone; whereby he (again) puts round himself what was put round him before.
10. They then attend on him with the boiling lustral water (madantt);- fire is heat, and the lustral water is heat: that is why they attend on him with the lustral water.
11. Having touched the lustral water, they (the priests and sacrificer) therewith strengthen the king (Soma). The reason why, after touching the lustral water, they strengthen the king is this ;-ghee is a thunderbolt, and Soma is seed: hence they strengthen the king after touching the lustral water, lest they should injure the seed, Soma, by the thunderbolt, the ghee.
12. Here now they say, Him, Soma, for whom that strengthening (meal), the guest-offering, is prepared, they ought first to strengthen, and then (ought to be performed) the Avântaradikshâ, and thereupon the Tanûnaptra.' But let him not do this. For such indeed was the course of the sacrificial performance : discord arose between them (the gods) thereat; they attained to their former tranquillity; then the Avantaradiksha and finally the strengthening.
13. Then as to why they strengthen (Soma). Soma is a god, since Soma (the moon) is in the sky. 'Soma, forsooth, was Vritra ; his body is the same as the mountains and rocks: thereon grows that plant called Usânâ,'—so said Svetaketu Auddalaki;
* On the apyâyana' (a-øyai, 'to swell, make swell,' to strengthen, become strong, increase, fill), see part i, p. 178, note 2. According to Âpastamba and other authorities, they tie a piece of gold to their pameless (gold) finger, and touch the Soma with their moist hands.
Digitized by Google