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 465

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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
joints were relaxed : with his relaxed joints he was unable to raise himself. Then the gods went on praising and toiling. They saw this Mahâvratiya (cup) and drew it for him : thereby they restored his joints.
2. With his joints thus restored, he approached this food, what food of Pragàpati there is,- for what eating is to men, that the vrata (fast-food, or religious observance generally) is to the gods. And because (they say), 'Great, indeed, is this vrata whereby he has raised himself, therefore it is called Mahâvratiya.
3. Now, even as Pragâ pati then was, when he had created the living beings, so are those who sit in sacrificial session) for a year; and as Pragâpati then, after a year, approached food, so do they now, after a year, approach food, for whomsoever that knows this, they draw that cup.
4. Let him draw it for Indra Vimridh (the Averter of scorn), for, verily, the scorners of those who sit for Muñga grass. During the chanting and recitation, the Udgâtri sits on an arm-chair, the Hotri on a hammock or swing, the Adbvaryu on a board, and the other priests on cushions of grass. Then follow several curious ceremonies, performed partly inside and partly outside the Vedi. The performance of the Sattra is alternately lauded and vituperated by two persons (the one, a Brahman, seated at the front door of the Sadas; the other, a Sadra, at the back door; both facing each other ;-thus Lâty. IV, 3, according to which authority, however, they are merely to say respectively, 'These Sattrins have not succeeded I'— They have succeeded !') At the same time a harlot and a theological student (brahmakharin) upbraid one another (in front of the Agnîdhrîya fire shed); while (south of the Margaliya) a sham contest takes place between an Arya (Vaisya) and a Sudra for the possession of a round white skin, the Sadra having to give in (after the third effort, when the Arya beats him with the skin). Thereupon a couple is shut up in an enclosed space south of the Mârgâliya (or behind the Agnidhriya, Laty.) for maithuna.
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