Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1014

V KÂNDA, I ADHYÂYA, 2 BRÂHMANA, 15.
its measure, with that much he thus wins its truth, its prosperity, its light.
12. And why he draws seventeen cups of Surâ ;Pragâpati is seventeenfold, Pragâpati is the sacrifice: as great as the sacrifice is, as great as is its measure, with that much he thus wins its untruth, its misery, its darkness.
13. These two amount to thirty-four cups; for there are thirty-three gods, and Pragàpati is the thirty-fourth : he thus wins Pragàpati.
14. Now when he buys the king (Soma), he at the same time buys for a piece of lead the Parisrut (immature spirituous liquor) from a long-haired man near by towards the south. For a long-haired man is neither man nor woman; for, being a male, he is not a woman; and being long-haired (a eunuch), he is not a man. And that lead is neither iron nor gold; and the Parisrut-liquor is neither Soma nor Surâ ? : this is why he buys the Parisrut for a piece of lead from a long-haired man.
15. And on the preceding day they prepare two
(three verses) making together seventeen verses. Similarly, the Arbhava-pavamâna (chanted at the Agnishłoma also in the Saptadasa-stoma, cf. part ii, p. 315; but here with modifications) consists of II, 165-7 (sung twice in two tunes=six verses); II, 42, 44 (two verses); II, 47-9 (in two tunes=six verses); II, 720-23 (three verses)-making together seventeen verses. For the similarly constructed Vågapeya hymn see page 11, note 1. See also Láty. Sr. VIII, 11, 15 seq., where the number of officiating priests, as well as that of the various sacrificial fees, is fixed at seventeen. Similarly, Âsv. Sr. IX, 9, 2-3 says that there are either to be seventeen dikshâs, or the whole ceremony is to be performed in seventeen days.
According to Sâyana, the difference between surâ and parisrut would seem to be that the former beverage is prepared from mature shoots (of rice, &c.), and the latter from such as are not quite ripe.
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