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 47

I 2
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
THIRD BRAHMANA. 1. Having brought water forward', he takes out (the material for) a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Vishnu; for Agni is all the deities, since it is in Agni that offering is made to all the deities. Moreover Agni is the lower half, and Vishnu is the upper half of the sacrifice: 'I will become consecrated after encompassing all the deities, after encompassing the entire sacrifice,' thus he thinks, and hence there is a cake on eleven potsherds for Agni and Vishnu.
2. Some then offer a rice-pap to the Adityas. This is referred to in the passage, Rig-veda X, 72, 8), “There are eight sons of Aditi who were born from her body; with seven she went to the gods, but Mârtànda? she cast off.'
3. Now Aditi had eight sons. But those that are called 'the gods, sons of Aditi,' were only seven, for the eighth, Mârtânda, she brought forth unformed 3 : it was a mere lump of bodily matter“, as broad as it was high. Some, however, say that he was of the size of a man.
4. The gods, sons of Aditi, then spake, 'That
1 Viz. the so-called 'pranîtah,' see part i, p. 9 note. The offering, described in the following paragraphs, is called the Dîk shaniyeshti, Consecration offering. As to the formulas used at the offering, see Ait. Br. I, 4 seq.
9 The bird, Vishnu, the sun.
• Or, the eighth she brought forth undeveloped, as a mârtânda (? either a bird, or, more probably, in accordance with Taitt. S. VI, 5, 6, 1,=vyriddham andam, an abortive egg'). See Rig-veda Sanhita, translated by M. M., p. 239.
• Sandegha; the St. Petersburg Dict. takes it in the sense of doubt, uncertainty,' in this passage.
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