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274
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
THIRTEENTH KÂNDA.
THE ASVAMEDHA, OR HORSE-SACRIFICE.
PRELIMINARY CEREMONIES'. First ADHYAYA. First BRÂHMANA. 1. He (the Adhvaryu) cooks the priests' mess of rice?: it is seed he thereby produces. Having greased a rope with the ghee which is left over 3, he takes it; for ghee is (a type of) fiery spirit, and the horse is sacred to Pragâpati+: he thus endows Pragapati with fiery spirit. Impure, and unfit for sacrifice, indeed, is that (animal), to wit, the horse.
2. The rope consists of darbha grass (poa cynosuroides) ;-for darbha stalks • are a means of purification: he thus purifies that (horse), and immolates it as one purified and meet for sacrifice.
3. Now, when the horse was immolated, its
1 The ceremonies treated of in the first six chapters (brâhmanas) refer to the setting apart of the horse for its sacred office, a year before the sacrifice, and to the intervening period during which the horse is allowed to roam about, though under careful super. vision.
For further particulars regarding this opening ceremony of the sacrifice see XIII, 4, 1, 1 seqq.
· Viz. from the ghee used for greasing the four dishes of cooked rice.
• Or, the horse is of the nature of Pragâpati. • See above, p. 195, note 1.
• That is, as would seem, Pragapati in the form of a horse, see part iv, introd., p. xiv seqq.
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