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 2116

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GRIHYA-SOTRAS.
Another Grihya section in the Satapatha Brahmana seems to have found its place there through a similar accidental kind of joining on to a preceding chapter as the above-mentioned passage. In XI, 5,5 a story of the battle of the gods and Asuras is told: the gods beat the Asuras back by means of constantly larger Sattra celebrations and conquer for themselves the world of heaven. It seems to me that the description of the great Sattras celebrated by the gods is the occasion of the joining on of a section beginning with the words 1 : 'There are five great sacrifices (mahayagñas); they are great Sattras: the offering to Beings, the offering to men, the offering to the Fathers (i. e. the Manes), the offering to the Gods, the offering to the Brahman.' After this introduction follows an account of one of the five great offerings, namely of the Brahmayagña, i.e. of the daily Veda recitation (svâdhyâya). The third Adhyâya of Åsvalayana's Grihya-sætra begins in exactly the same way with the sentence : 'Now (follow) the five sacrifices : the sacrifice to the Gods, the sacrifice to the Beings, the sacrifice to the Fathers, the sacrifice to the Brahman, the sacrifice to men,' and then follows here also a discussion of the Brahmayagña, which is entirely analogous to that given in the Satapatha Brahmana. Asvalâyana here does not content himself with describing the actual course of ceremonies as is the rule in the Sutra texts; he undertakes, quite in the way of the Brahmana texts, to explain their meaning: In that he recites the Rikas, he thereby satiates the gods with oblations of milk, in that (he recites) the Yagus, with oblations of ghee,' &c. It is plain that the mode of exposition adopted by Asvalâyana in this passage, which is different from the usual Satra style, finds its explanation in the supposition that exceptionally in this case the author of the Grihya-sætra had before him a Bråhmana text, which he could take as his model, whether that text was the Satapatha itself or another similar text.
Among the extremely various prescriptions which we find
Satapatha Brahmana XI, 5, 6, 1.
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