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

Page 216

162
SATAPATHA-BRÂHMANA.
6. This (thumb) is the fifth day,—this is its morning-service, this its midday-service, and this its evening-service : it is in place of the Parkti, for the Pankti is broad", as it were, whence this (thumb) is the broadest of these (fingers).
7. This (right arm) is the sixth day,-this forearm 2) is its morning-service, this (upper arm) its midday-service, and this (shoulder-blade) its eveningservice: it is in place of the Atikhandas, whence this (arm) is larger than those (fingers). That day is a Gayatri one, whence this shoulder-blade is the shortest: this Abhiplava-shadaha (extends) in this, in this, in this, and in this, directions; and the Prishthya is the body (trunk).
8. Now, as to this, Paingya, knowing this, said, • The Abhiplavas leap about (plavante), as it were, and the Prishthya stands (stha) , as it were; for
points to the fore-finger as the finger used most in eating. This is not improbable, though Sâyana, as well as the commentary on Kâty. IV, 1, 10, it is true, does not interpret the passage in that way.
Viz. inasmuch as it consists of five pâdas,-instead of three, as in the case of the Gayatri, or four, as in that of the others.
? Thus also Harisvâmin (hardly, the palm; but see p. 161, note 3).
3 Viz. in the direction of the two arms and the two legs. There being, in nine of the twelve months of the year, four Abhiplavas and one Prishthya in each month, the two kinds of sixdays' performances as regards numbers, certainly offer an analogy to the limbs and the body.'
• This etymological quibble seems to refer to the fact that the Abhiplavas are performed before the Prishthya in the first half of the year, and after them in the second half; though the same feature of change might, vice versâ, be applied to the Prishthya. It is possible, however, that the author may refer here to other characteristic features of the two kinds of Shadahas; and it cannot be denied that the Abhiplava days are liable to much greater change than the Prishthya days. The constant change in the
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