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 801

I 22
VEDIC HYMNS.
used for pressing the Soma, it would be of no consequence if they were broken.-Other passages in which the dhishanah are mentioned in connection with the preparation of the Soma, are Rig-veda IX, 59, 2; X, 17, 2. In the last passage 'the lap of the Dh.' is mentioned as in I, 109, 3 (see above). The dhishana was anointed, I, 102, 1. The dhishana is mentioned in connection with the waters which were fetched by the Adhvaryus and used at the sacrifice, X, 30, 6, and in connection with the sacrificial fire, III, 2, 1, and in our passage. I have therefore no doubt that according to the original meaning the Dhishana was, as stated above, a sacrificial implement used chiefly, though not exclusively, at the pressing of the Soma. I do not venture to determine the exact nature of this implement, but I think that from the passages collected above it will be evident that it was a sort of support on which the pressing-stones rested. A similar support may have been used for the vessel containing the sacrificial water, and for the sacrificial fire. This support was considered as yielding the Soma to Indra, as strengthening Indra, as inciting Indra and the gods to liberality towards men. Thus we have a goddess Dhishana who wears the aspect of a goddess of wealth. She is invoked as one of the Gnâs in I, 22, 10 with Hotrà Bhâratî. Finally the Earth, the support of everything, was likened to this support of the pressing-stones and of the Soma; and Heaven and Earth were then considered as the two Dhishanâs.
Note 3. Comp. above, 94, 13, note 1.
Verse 2.
Note 1. On the solemn formulas of invocation, called Nivids, see Haug's Aitareya Brahmana, p. 32 seq. ; Weber, Indische Studien, IX, 355; H. O., Religion des Veda, 387, note 2. Of course, the Nivids which Sânkhâyana (Srautasútra VIII, 16–25) gives, cannot be those to which the poets of the Rig-veda several times allude.
Note 2. On Åyu as one of the mythical ancestors of
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