Satapatha Bramhana Part 03

SR No.: 007679
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 2382
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 1066

VI, II 2.
COMMENTARY.
523
Hercules (cf. the Avestan Thraêtaona Åthwya); whether we regard him as Indra's lieutenant (see the passages of the RV. just cited); or whether we follow Bergaigne, La Religion Védique, II, 326, 330, in viewing him as a divine sacrificer; in each case the moralising fancy, which would whitewash the cruelties incidental upon Indra's valued services, naturally alights upon Trita, and makes him bear the burden of his superior's misdeeds. And this again has been generalised so that in AV. VI, 113 the gods in general, without specification, are said to have wiped off their guilt upon Trita. He in his turn passes off his guilt upon the sinners among men.
The rites within which AV. VI, 112 and 113 are embedded in Kaus. 46, 26-9 have for their object the removal of the sin of him whose younger brother marries first, as also of the prematurely married younger brother. Symbolically the sin is again removed, this time to a non-living object, to wit: 'While reciting VI, 112 and 113 (the performing priest) ties fetters of muñga-grass upon the limbs of the parivitti and the parivividåna, as they sit at the edge of a body of water (a river), washes them by means of bunches of grass, and rinses them off. Placing other fetters upon the foam (in the river) he lets them flow away while reciting the hemistich, VI, 113, 2 c, d. And having entered the dwelling (the priest) sprinkles them while reciting all the hymns to the waters (see Kaus. 7, 4, note).
The treatment of the Kausika embraces but one aspect of the hymn, in employing it in connection with the ex
Dârila, 'the younger brother along with the unmarried older brother.' Kesava somewhat differently, an expiatory performance for him who marries, sets up the fire, and is consecrated for the soma-sacrifice, while the older brother is living. Cf. the sins of the paryâdhâtar and the paryâhita, the younger brother who sets up the fire, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin ;' and the pariyashtar and the parishta, the younger brother who is consecrated for the sacrifice before the older, and the older brother who is passively implicated in the same sin.' See Delbrück, I. c., pp. 580-1 (203–3).
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