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 51

16
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
indeed, and unfettered on both sides, the Rakshas roams along the air; even as man here roams along the air, rootless and unfettered on both sides : the reason, then, why it is (a reed-stalk) with a tuft, is to chase away the evil spirits.
14. The right eye he anoints first; for in human practice the left (eye is anointed) first, but with the gods (it is done) thus.
15. He anoints it with the text, 'Thou art the eye-ball of Vritra,'-for Vritra's eye-ball it indeed is ;—'Eye-giving thou art: give me the eye!' in this there is nothing obscure.
16. The right eye he anoints once with the sacrificial formula, once silently; and the left one he anoints once with the formula, twice silently: thus he makes the left (or upper) one superior?
17. And the reason why he anoints five times, is that the sacrifice is of equal measure with the year, and five seasons there are in the year: he thus obtains possession of the latter in five (divisions), and therefore he anoints five times.
18. He then purifies him with a cleanser (pavitra, strainer) of sacred grass ; for impure, indeed, is man:-he is foul within in that he speaks untruth ;-and sacred grass is pure : ‘Having become pure, I shall be consecrated,'thus he thinks;—and the stalks of sacred grass are a means of cleansing, -
("lest such an event should happen') instead of the dative of the abstract, cf. I, 2, 1, 8; 9; IV, 5, 9, 3.
* I now take this passage differently from my interpretation of I, 1, 2, 4 and, in order that this man may move about the air, rootless and unfettered in both directions'). See also IV, 1, 1, 20.
$ Tad uttaram evaitad uttarâvat karoti ;' uttarãm évaitad úttaram karoti,' Kânva recension. Cf. p. 2, note 1.
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