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 1159

154
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
inasmuch as he created Agni, thereby he is Agni's father; and inasmuch as Agni restored him, thereby Agni is his (Pragâpati's) father; and inasmuch as he created the gods, thereby he is the father of the gods; and inasmuch as the gods restored him, thereby the gods are his fathers.
27. Twofold verily is this,-father and son, Pragapati and Agni, Agni and Pragàpati, Pragâpati and the gods, the gods and Pragàpati—(for) whosoever knows this.
28. He builds up with ?, By that deity'—that deity, doubtless, is Vâk (speech),—' Angiras-like,'Angiras, doubtless, is the breath;—lie thou steady!'
—that is,' lie thou firm;' or 'lie thou firmly established.' It is both with speech and with breath that he builds; for Agni is speech, and Indra is the breath ; and the fire (agni) relates to Indra and Agni : as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, by so much he thus builds him up. And again, Indra and Agni are all the gods, (for) Agni belongs to all deities: thus as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, by so much he thus builds him up.
29. Here now they say, 'Wherefore is Agni(the firealtar) built of this (earth) ?' But, surely, when that deity (Pragâpati) became relaxed (fell asunder), he flowed along this (earth) in the shape of his life-sap; and when the gods restored him (put him together), they gathered him up from this earth : this earth then is that one brick ?, for Agni is this earth, since
1 This is the formula (Våg. S. XII, 53) with which the so-called sådanam' or 'settling of the bricks is performed. See VII, I, 1, 30.
That is, the first brick which the wife of the Sacrificer herself forms, and which is called Ashâdha. See VI, 3, 1, 1; 5, 3, 1.
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