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 1294

VI KÂNDA, 8 ADHYÂYA, I BRÂHMANA, 3.
289
after going for a drive he were not to unyoke; but when he concludes by performing the Vatsapra—the Vatsapra being a halting-place-(it is) as if he made a halt and unloosed (the team) : let him therefore conclude by performing the Vatsapra.
Eighth ADHYÂYA. FIRST BRÂHMANA. 1. 'Let him drive Agni about while keeping him up,' so they say. The gods and the Asuras, both of them sprung from Prâgapati, were contending. The gods drove about on wheels (cars), and the Asuras stayed at home. The gods, while driving about on wheels, saw this rite (sacrificial performance), for it was indeed in driving about on wheels that they saw this rite: hence it is to the cart that the formulas relate at the (performance with) sacrificial cakes?, and to the cart in the building of the fire-altar
2. Now he who drives Agni about goes to the gods by the sacred performance, for divine is the rite performed by him ; but he who does not drive him about goes to the Asuras by the sacred performance, for demoniac is the rite performed by him.
3. Here now some say, 'It is by himself that he (Agni) is driven about ; for by the Vishnu-strides he drives forward, and by the Vatsapra he unyokes.' Let him not think this to be so; for divine (to the gods) is that progress of his, to wit, the Vishnu-strides ; and divine the unyoking, to wit, the Vâţsapra. But human would be that progress of his, which he makes in this manner, and human the unyoking he makes.
Sâyana says, 'vîrasiddheh,' by the heroes' success." * See I, 1, 2, 5.
• Sâyana refers to Våg. S. XII, 31, upwards may the All-gods bear thee ...' (paragraph 9 below), as a passage in point.
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