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 1874

PÂRASKARA-GRIHYA-SÛTRA.
That is: 'The word pra stands in the sense of the word upa. Some teachers desire that it (i. e. the fire) should have the kindling sticks as its physical basis1.'
Thus, if Gayarâma is right, Prof. Stenzler's translation would be justified. But can we acquiesce indeed in simply accepting the commentator's opinion? Pradâna is pradâna and not upâdâna, as pradadâti is not upâdatte. Pradadâti means 'he hands over,' and pradâna 'the handing over.' This is an established fact, and an interpreter of a Vedic text should not allow himself to be induced by a statement like that of Gayarâma about the preposition pra standing in the sense of upa, to abate one iota of it. Thus we are obliged, until passages have been discovered which modify our knowledge of what pradâna means-but such passages most certainly will never be discovered to translate:
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5. Some (teachers say that) the handing over of the kindling sticks (takes place).
We should give that translation even if we were not able to find an explanation for it. It appears that Prof. Stenzler, as far as we can judge from his note, has not even thought of the possibility of disregarding the authority of Gayarâma and Râmakrishna, or of looking through the parallel texts to see whether they do not throw light on what that 'handing over of the kindling sticks' signifies. The text to be consulted first is of course Kâtyâyana's Srauta-sûtra. As the Srauta ritual contains a description of an âdhâna which is in some way the prototype of the corresponding Grihya ceremony, we may possibly expect to discover, in the course of that description, the statements regarding the arani-pradâna for which we are searching. Now Kâtyâyana, having described the setting up of the fire in the gârhapatyâgâra, states that at sunset the sacrificer and his
Ramakrishna also, according to Prof. Stenzler's note, explains pradâna by upâdána, kârana, utpattisthána.
2 IV, 7, 15 seqq. The corresponding passage of the Paddhati is found at P. 358 of Prof. Weber's edition.
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