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 1167

162
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
into the (different) forms. Agni became aware of it, -Surely, Father Pragâpati is searching for me: well then, let me be suchlike that he knows me not.'
-
2. He saw those five animals, the Purusha (man), the horse, the bull, the ram, and the he-goat. Inasmuch as he saw (pas) them, they are (called) cattle (pasu).
3. He entered into those five animals; he became those five animals. But Pragâpati still searched for him.
4. He saw those five animals. Because he saw (pas) them, therefore they are animals (pasu); or rather, because he saw him (Agni) in them, therefore they are animals.
5. He considered, 'They are Agni: I will fit them unto mine own self1. Even as Agni, when kindled, glares, so their eye glares; even as Agni's smoke rises upwards, so vapour rises from them; even as Agni consumes what is put in him, so they devour; even as Agni's ashes fall down, so do their faeces: they are indeed Agni; I will fit them unto mine own self.' He meant to slaughter them for different deities: the Purusha (man) for Visvakarman, the horse for Varuna, the bull for Indra, the ram for Tvashtri, the he-goat for Agni.
6. He considered, 'For different deities, indeed, I mean to slaughter now; but I myself desire (kam)
1 Or, I will make them part of mine own self.-Similarly St. Petersburg dictionary, 'I will change them into myself.' But differently Professor Delbrück, Altind. Synt., p. 239, 'I will make myself to be these, change myself into these.' This is on account of the middle form of the verb, which, however, is quite justified also in the former interpretation. Cf. VI, 8, 2, 1, where there is no question of changing the whole sacrifice into a heap of ashes, but of taking over the ashes, or some of it, to form part of the sacrifice.
Digitized by
Google