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 1384

BK. XXVII.
TANG xi.
293
The sweet liquor is in the apartment (where the personator is); the reddish in the hall; and the clear in the court below :--all to teach the people not to go to excess in being greedy?
The personator drinks three cups, and all the guests drink one :-teaching the people that there must be the distinction of high and low.
The ruler takes the opportunity of the spirits and flesh of his sacrifice to assemble all the members of his kindred :-teaching the people to cultivate harmony.
Thus it is that on the hall above they look at what is done in the apartment, and in the court below at what is done by those in the hall (for their pattern); as it is said in the Book of Poetry (II, vi, ode 5, 3),
Every form is according to rule;
Every smile and word is as it should be.' 28. The Master said, 'The giving place to a visitor at every stage of his advancing (from the entrance gate), according to the rules for visitors; and the repetition of the ceremonies, according to the mourning rites, in an ever-increasing distance from the apartment of the corpse; the washing of the corpse over the pit in the centre of the open court; the putting the rice into the mouth under the window; the slighter dressing of the corpse inside the door of the apartment; the greater dressing at the top of the steps on the east; the coffining in the place for guests; the sacrifice on taking the road (with the coffin) in the courtyard; and the interment in the grave :-these were intended to teach the people how the element of distance enters into the
The best liquor was in the lowest place.
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