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 2496

222
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
six in number,—thereby it obtains the nights of the seasons: thus it obtains both the days and nights of the year. And what thirty-five there are, they are the intercalary) thirteenth month ', and that is the body,—the body (consists) of thirty (limbs), the feet of two, the breath of two (in-breathing and up-breathing), and the head is the thirty-fifth : so much is the year; and thus that shower of wealth of his obtains (conformity with) the year, and Agni; and thus it corresponds to the year, to Agni. And so many are the bricks with special formulas which are placed in the centre of a Sândila fire-altar; for these bricks indeed are the same as these different Agnis 2; and thus these Agnis of his come to have oblations offered to them separately by means of the shower of wealth.
19. As to this they say, 'How does this shower of wealth of his attain to (conformity with the Great Litany, how does it correspond to the Great Litany?' Well, the first nine formulas of this shower of wealth are the threefold 8 head; and the forty-eight which follow are the twenty-four-fold wings *; and the twenty-five which follow are the twenty-five-fold body); and the twenty-one which follow are the tail, as the twenty-first 8; and the
1 See p. 167, note 1.
? Viz. the different forms, or powers, of Agni, to which the 401 libations are offered. See IX, 1, 1, 43, where the very same calculations are applied to the Satarudriya.
* See p. 114, note 1.
• Paksha, wing, also means half-month, fortnight, of which there are twenty-four in the year.
• See p. 168, note 3. . Apparently in addition to the fingers and toes (? of monkeys),
Digiized by Google