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 2040

VI, 112. COMMENTARY.
521
woman of the waters (ápyà yóshana) perform a similar service : 'And the Gandharvi, the woman of the water, spake; when the reeds rustle may she protect my mind 1.' Primarily, the madness which the Gandharvas and Apsaras can cause, and which they are called upon to remove, is, in accordance with the general character of these divinities, the madness of love ; cf. the story of Urvasi and Purðravas (RV. X, 95, especially st. 14).
VI, 112. COMMENTARY TO PAGE 164. This and the following hymn reflect a cycle of legends to which the translator has devoted an article in the Proc. Amer. Or. Soc., March, 1894 (Journal, vol. xvi, p. cxix ff.), entitled, 'Trita, the scapegoat of the gods.' Without the light of the conceptions there alluded to the hymns are hardly intelligible, and a brief statement of them here will not be out of place. At Maitr. S. IV, 1, 9, it is stated that the gods did not find a person upon whom they might be able to wipe off from themselves the bloody part of the sacrifice, i.e. their guilt. Agni spat upon the waters, and successively three personages, Ekata, Dvita, and Trita, were born. The gods wiped off their guilt upon them; they in turn wiped themselves upon one who was overtaken by the rising sun, i.e. one over whom the sun had risen while he was asleep; this one wiped himself upon one who was overtaken by the setting sun; he upon one afflicted with brown teeth; he upon one with diseased nails ; he upon one that had married a younger sister, before the older was married ; he upon one whose younger brother had married before himself; he upon one who had married before his older brother; he upon one who had slain a man; he upon one who had committed an abortion. 'Beyond him who has committed an abortion the sin does not pass.' .
In Tait. Br. III, 2, 8, 9 ff. the same story is told with
* Cf. Pischel, Vedische Studien, I, 188. . Cf. Contributions, Third Series, Journ. Amer. Or. Soc. XV, 163; Fifth Series, ib. XVI, 3.
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