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 2459

IX KÂNDA, 2 ADHYAYA, I BRÂHMANA, 14. 185
food, and these, to wit, sour curds, honey and ghee, are the most excellent kind of food : this, the most excellent form he thus bestows upon him as his highest (property). Everywhere he sprinkles, even outside the enclosing-stones; everywhere he thus bestows on him the highest form ;-by means of sacrificial grass-stalks (he sprinkles), for they are pure and meet for sacrifice; by means of their tops (he sprinkles), for the top (is sacred) to the
gods.
13. And, again, as to why he sprinkles them;-of old, when the Rishis, the vital airs, joined him together, they made that'sagarabdlya' (oblation) his special fore-share, and, when he had been built up, they made this (sprinkling) his after-share: thus, in sprinkling him, he gratifies those Rishis, the vital airs, who, when he (Agni) had been built up, made this his after-share. With sour curds, honey and ghee (he sprinkles): the significance of this has been explained.
14. [He sprinkles, with, Våg. S. XVII, 13, 14], •The gods of the gods, the worshipful of the worshipful,'—for they (the vital airs) are indeed the gods of (among) the gods, and the worshipful of the worshipful ;—'who draw nigh unto the yearlong share,' for they do indeed draw near to this their year-long share ;-'not eaters of oblations, -at this offering of sacrificial food,'--for the vital airs, indeed, are not eaters of oblations;— may themselves drink of the honey and the ghee!'
1 That is, the oblation (made on the bunch of sacrificial grass placed in the centre of the freshly ploughed altar-site, where the furrows meet) with the formula (Vâg. S. XII, 74) beginning 'sagør abdo.' See VII, 2, 3, 8.
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