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 1232

xx, 127. COMMENTARY.
689
stanzas at the end of hymns, lauding the generosity of kings or sacrificers to the officiating Brahmans, appear as preliminary stages in the development of epic narratives in praise of warlike kings and heroes. Closely allied with these are the so-called gåthà nârâsamsyah1, stanzas which sing the praises of men,' slokas which occur in the Brahmana-texts, dealing with this theme in exorbitant terms. The Brahmanical authorities agree in assigning the so-called kuntâpa-hymns, XX, 127-136, to this kind of literature, and the opening stanza of XX, 127 leaves no room for doubting their correctness. The Ait. Br. VI. 32 ff.? works up the material of the kuntâpa-hymns at the sattras, the 'soma-sessions,' or prolonged soma-sacrifices, at which seventeen priests perform their functions. See Roth, Über den Atharva-veda (Tübingen, 1856), p. 6 ff.; Max Müller, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 493 ; Haug's translation of the Ait. Br., p. +30 ff., and Weber, Episches im vedischen Ritual, Proceedings of the Royal Prussian Academy, July 23, 1891, XXXVIII, p. 770 ff. (p. 4 ff. of the reprint).
AV. XX, 127 consists of four pieces, dealing with different themes ; the ritual employs each of them distinctively under the names nårâsamsî, raibhî, pârikshitî, and kâravyà. Two of these names, nârâsamsî and raibhî, occur as early as RV. X, 85, 6; Tait. S. VII, 5, 11, 2. Quite a number of the stanzas of kunta pa-hymns are quoted in the Brâhmanas, exhibiting essentially the same textual corruption as the Atharvan version. The Sânkh. Sr. XII, 14 ff. exhibits them in full: AV. XX, 127= Sankh. Sr. XII, 14-17.
Sometimes gâthâh (indragathah) and nârâsamsyah are differentiated, being mentioned separately, Tait. S. VII, 5, 11, 2; Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Ait. Br. VI, 32, 3. 25; Sat. Br. XI, 5, 6, 8; Âsv. Grih. III, 3, 1 ff.; Yâgħav. I, 45. The Brihaddevatâ, III, 154, states explicitly that the nârâsamsî-verses are of the nature of dânastutis.
s Cf. also Kaush. Br. XXX, 5; Sânkh. Sr. XII, 14; Âsv. Sr. VIII, 3, 7 ff.; Vait. SQ. 32, 19 ff.; Gop. Br. II, 6, 12 ff. [42]
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