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 2441

IX KÂNDA, I ADHYAYA, I BRÂHMANA, 44. 167
Agni ?' Well, this Satarudriya includes three hundred and sixty (formulas); and (other) thirty, and thirty-five. Now, as to the three hundred and sixty which there are, so many are there days in the year : thereby it obtains the days of the year. And as to the thirty (formulas) which there are, they are the thirty nights of the month : thereby it obtains the nights of the month : thus it obtains both the days and nights of the year. And as to the thirty-five (formulas) there are, they are the thirteenth month', (Agni's) self,— the body (consists of) thirty (limbs), the feet of two, the breath of two (in-breathing and off-breathing), and the head is the thirty-fifth: so much is the year. And in this way this Satarudriya of his attains to (conformity with the year, Agni, and corresponds to the year, Agni. And, indeed, in the Sândila firealtar as many bricks with formulas attached to them are placed in the middle, for these bricks are indeed the same as these different Agnis (invoked in the Satarudriya); and thus these Agnis of his come to have oblations offered to them separately by means of the Satarudriya.
44. As to this they say, 'How does this Satarudriya of his attain to (conformity with) the Great
As Prof. Weber, Die vedischen Nachrichten von den Nakshatra,' p. 298, points out, this passage points to a six years' period of intercalation, since, in counting 360 days in the year, the remainder accumulates in six years to an intercalary month of thirty-five days (or thirty-six according to Sat. Br. X, 5, 4, 5); and accordingly in Vâg. S. XXX, 15, and Taitt. Ar. IV, 19, I, the names of the six years of such a period of intercalation are mentioned; while a five years' period and the names of the respective years are more frequently referred to.
• Viz. twenty fingers and toes, the upper and lower arms, the thighs and shanks, and the hands.
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