Page Text
________________
180
SATAPATHA-BRÂHMANA.
omentum, the animal cake, and the chief oblation, for of that much consists the animal sacrifice.
23. On the eighth day (after full moon) he collects (the materials for) the fire-pan ; for sacred to Pragapati is that day, the eighth (after full moon), and sacred to Pragâpati is this (sacred) piece of work, the fire-pan : on a day sacred to Pragâpati he thus performs the work sacred to Pragâpati.
24. And as to why it is performed) on the eighth day;that eighth day no doubt is a joint of the year, and that fire-pan is a joint of Agni (the fire-altar) : he thus makes joint upon joint.
25. And, again, why on the eighth day ;-eightfold doubtless is the panthe bottom part, the two sideparts, the horizontal belt (or rim), that makes four; and four upright (bands), that makes eight: he thus makes the eightfold on the eightfold (or eighth).
26. He performs the initiation on the day of new moon; for from out of the new moon the sacrifice is spread: Whence the sacrifice is spread, thence will I generate the sacrifice,' so he thinks.
27. And, again, why he (does so) at new moon;when he performs the initiation, he verily pours out his own self, as seed, into the fire-pan, the womb; and when he becomes initiated, he makes for it (his self) that world (or place) beforehand ?, and he is
* For the construction of the fire-pan, in which the sacred fre has to be kept up for a year, during which the initiation-ceremony is repeated day after day, see VI, 5, 2, 1 seq.
? There is kept up in these paragraphs a play on the word 'loka,' meaning both space' and 'world (or place of living),'--and applying both to the space occupied by a brick, in building up the altar; and to the place which the Sacrificer, by this performance, gains for himself in another world. The initiation period is here represented
Digitized by Google
| SR No. | 007681 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 01 |
| 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 |