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 437

SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
setting of the sun, and after sunset he follows it up by reciting the sastra1.
402
THE DVADA SÂHA'.
FOURTH BRAHMANA.
1. Now, at first the gods were all alike, all good. Of them, being all alike, all good, three desired, 'May we be superiors!'-Agni, Indra, and Surya.
2. They went on praising and toiling. They saw those Atigrâhyas', and drew (grah) them for them
1 The Shodasi-sastra is minutely described in the Ait. Br. IV, 3 seq. The opening verses are in the Anush/ubh metre (of sixteen syllables), but otherwise also the Hotri has by means of pauses and insertions of formulas (nivid) to bring out its sixteenfold' character so as to accord with its designation.
The Dvâdasâh a, or twelve days' performance, forms the connecting link between the so-called Ahîna sacrifices (consisting of between two and twelve press-days) and the sattras, or sacrificial sessions (of twelve press-days and upwards); since it can be performed as one or the other. As a sattra (which seems to be its usual character) it consists of the Dasarâtra, or ten nights' (or days') period, preceded and followed by an Atirâtra, as the prâyaniya (opening) and udayanfya (concluding) days. The Dasarâtra, on its part, consists of three tryahas (or tridua), viz. a Prishthya shadaha (see note 4), and three Ukthya days, the so-called Khandomas (on which see Haug, Ait. Br.Transl. p. 347). These are followed by an Atyagnishtoma day, called Avivákya (i. e. on which there should be no dispute, or quarrel').
Ati-tishthâvânah, lit. 'standing forth over (all others,' see IV, 5, 3, 2). In this, as in the preceding Brâhmana, the prefix ati has to do service repeatedly for etymological and symbolical purposes.
I. e. cups of Soma 'to be drawn over and above' (Weber, Ind. Stud. IX, 235; for a different explanation see Haug, Ait. Br. Transl. p. 490). These three grahas are required at the Prishthya shadaha, which forms part of the Dvâdasâha (see note 2), and of sacrificial sessions generally. The shadaha, or period of six Soma days, which (though itself consisting of two tryaha, or
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