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.
up the two fires in the churning-sticks, and, having churned out (a new fire), let him continue offering (the Agnihotra) at whatever place may have commended itself to him for the immolation 1. And if the Sacrificer should then depart this world,—
2. Let him build a pile for him' in the midst of his fires, and, by burning him, unite him with his fires.' But let him not do this; for, verily, that (fire) does not submit thereto that they should make offering to it as for the burning of a dead body: it is rather to sacrifice and oblations that it submits, and, unable to endure it, it stays by him with impatience.
3. He should rather proceed thus:-let him bid them seek three pots, and, having put therein either (dried) cowdung or straw, let him place them separately on the (three) fires; and let them then burn him by means of the fires produced from that blaze: in this way he is indeed burned by (these) fires, though not visibly, so to speak.
4. Wherefore, also, it has been said by the Rishi (Vâg. S. XIII, 45'), 'The Agni who was born from Agni, from the pain of the earth or be it of the sky; whereby Visvakarman begat
1 Literally, at any place at which the cutting up may have commended itself to him (to take place). Whether this 'cutting up' is here to be taken figuratively of the burning of the corpse (dâhasthâne, Harisvâmin), or of the sacrifice of a barren cow, which may be performed in such a case, or of both, is not quite clear. The construction would rather seem to be,-let him build him (i. e. the dead body) up as a pile amidst his fires.
The real meaning of 'sumbala' is not known,-acc. to the St. Petersb. Dict., some material which readily takes fire, such as straw or oakum. Harisvâmin takes it in the former sense,-trinâny alpasamsthitâni. Cf. Kâty. XXV, 7, 12 (? dried cotton fibre or pods). Cf. VII, 5, 2, 21.
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