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 2082

XIII KÂNDA, 2 ADHYAYA, 3 BRÂHMANA, 2. 305
they glide along with the horse for the Pavamâna (-stotra), it is for getting to know (the way to) the heavenly world; and they hold on to the horse's tail, in order to reach the heavenly world; for man does not rightly know (the way to) the heavenly world, but the horse does rightly know it.
2. Were the Udgåtri to chant the Udgitha?, it would be even as if one who does not know the country were to lead by another (than the right) way. But if, setting aside the Udgatri, he chooses
doubtful. The commentator, it would seem, accounts for this identification of the Pavamâna-stotra with heaven by the fact that the second day of the Asvamedha is an ekavim-sa day (see XIII, 3, 3, 3; Tandya-Br. XXI, 4, 1), i.e. one on which all the stotras are performed in the twenty-one-versed hymn-form; and that the Sun is commonly called 'ekavimsa,' the twenty-first, or twenty-one-fold. The particular chant intended is that of the morning pressing, viz. the Bahishpavamâna, or outside-Pavamåna-stotra, so-called because at the ordinary one-day's Soma-sacrifice, it is chanted outside the Sadas. But, on the other hand, in the case of Ahina-sacrifices, or those lasting from two to twelve days, that stotra is chanted outside only on the first day, whilst on the others it is done inside the Sadas. An exception is, however, made in the case of the Asvamedha, which requires the morning Pavamâna, on all three days, to be performed in its usual place on the north-eastern part of Vedi, south of the Katvala.
For the noiseless way of sliding or creeping from the Sadas, and returning thither, and approaching the different Dhishnyas, or fire-bearths, see part ii, p. 299, note 2. As has already been stated, it is only after the chanting of the Bahishpavamâna that the victims are driven up to the offering place.
* It is from this, the principal part of the Såman, or chanted verse (cf. part ii, p. 310, note), that the Udgâtri takes his name; this particular function of his being, on the present occasion, supposed to be performed by the whinnying of the horse. After this they make the horse step on the chanting-ground, apparently either as a visible recognition of the part it has been made to play, or because the horse thereby is made to go to heaven with which the Bahishpavamâna was identified.
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