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 213

178
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
slay it, but let him set it free after fire has been carried round it.
THIRD BRÂHMANA.
B. THE KILLING OF THE Victim. 1. There are both an animal and a sacrificial stake, for never do they immolate an animal without a stake. And as to why this is so :-well, animals did not at first submit thereto that they should become food, as they are now become food; for just as man here walks two-footed and erect, so did they walk two-footed and erect.
2. Then the gods perceived that thunderbolt, to wit, the sacrificial stake; they raised it, and from fear thereof they (the animals) shrunk together and thus became four-footed, and thus became food, as they are now become food, for they submitted thereto: wherefore they immolate the animal only at a stake and never without a stake.
3. Having driven up the victim, and churned the fire, he binds it (to the stake). And as to why this is so :-well, animals did not at first submit thereto that they should become sacrificial food, as they are now become sacrificial food and are offered up in the fire. · The gods secured them : even thus secured they did not resign themselves.
4. They spake, 'Verily, these (animals) know not the manner of this, that it is in fire that sacrificial food is offered, nor (do they know) that secure resort (the fire) : let us offer fire into the fire after securing the animals and churning the fire, and they will know that this truly is the manner of sacrificial food,
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