Satapatha Bramhana Part 05

SR No.: 007680
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1900
Total Pages: 2017
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 44 MB

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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
Stotras and Sastras run together :' inasmuch as he makes them run together, these (channels of the) vital airs, though separate from one another, run together, with one and the same aim', into a common web; but were he not to make them run together, the Sacrificer would be liable to perish; and liable to perish, indeed, is one who is either blind or deaf.
5. The Agnishtomas amount to nine in a month ®; -now, there are nine vital airs: it is the vital airs he thus lays into them (the Sacrificers); and thus they attain the full term of life, and so, indeed, they do not depart this world before the (full) term of life.
6. And the Ukthyas (amount) to twenty-one ;now, there are twelve months in the year, five seasons, and three worlds, that makes twenty, and he who burns yonder (the sun) is the twenty-first,
Dict., on the other hand, takes 'tantra' here in the sense of model form, type,'-and, indeed, the one meaning constantly passes into the other. The MS. of the comm. is too corrupt to be of much use.
1 This is a doubtful rendering of 'ekoti.' Though, doubtless, the juxtaposition of ekoti' and 'samânam atim' cannot be accidental, the word 'Oti' may probably have a different derivation and meaning in the two occurrences. Cf. Kern, Saddharmapundarika, introd., p. xvii ; Journ. of the Påli Text Society, 1885, pp. 32-38.
During five complete months of the first half, and four complete months of the second half, of the year four Abhiplavashadahas and one Prishthya-shadaha are performed. Now, the six days of the Abhiplava-shadaha consist of 1. Agnishtoma; 2-5. Ukthyas; 6. Agnishtoma; and those of the Prishthya-shadaha of 1. Agnishtoma; 2. 3. Ukthya; 4. Shodasin; 5. 6. Ukthya. For the four Abhiplavas and the one Prishthya of each month this, accordingly, gives nine Agnishtomas, twenty Ukthyas, and one Shodasin (counted, however, as an Ukthya in paragraphs 6 and 7).
The reason why the Sun is so often referred to as the twentyfirst or twenty-one-fold, is not easy to discover. Possibly it may be from the fact that the Vishuvat day, or central day of the great session and the longest day of the year, is identified with the Sun,
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