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 562

III ADHYAYA, I PÂDA, 6.
109
sraddha. From that oblation rises Soma the king1. To those (persons who have performed ishtis, &c.) water is supplied in the shape of the materials employed to perform the agnihotra, the darsapûrnamâsa and other sacrifices, viz. sour milk, milk, &c., which substances, as consisting mostly of water, may directly be considered as water. Of these, when offered in the âhavanîya, the subtle parts assume the form of an apûrva resulting from the oblation 3, and attach themselves to the performer of the sacrifice. Then (when the sacrificer dies) the priests offer his body, with the funeral ceremonies, into the crematory fire, with the mantra, '(may) he (go) to the heavenly world, svâhâ.' Then the water forming the oblation-which was connected with deeds resulting from faith 5-having assumed the form of an apûrva envelops the souls of those who had performed the sacrifices, and leads them up to the heavenly world to receive their reward. In accordance with the preceding interpretation scripture says in the agnihotra chapter alsoin the complementary passage constituting the reply to the six questions-that the two agnihotra-oblations go up to the other world in order to originate the fruit (of the work of the sacrificer), 'Those two oblations when offered go up, &c.' (Sat. Br. XI, 6, 2, 6).-Hence we conclude that the
1 Both passages speak of something reaching, i.e. becoming the moon. Now, as that something is, in the passage about the road of the fathers, the gîvas of those who have performed ishfis, &c., we conclude that by the sraddhâ also, from which in the other passage the moon is said to rise, those gîvas are meant, or, properly speaking, the subtle body of water which envelops those gîvas.-Dhûmâdivâkye paйkâgnivâkye ka somarâgatvaprâptisravanâviseshâd ishrâdikârinah sraddhâsabditâdbhir veshthitâ dyulokam yântîti bhâtîty arthah. Ân. Gi.
Ân. Gi. introduces this clause by: nanu mahad iha srutyor vailakshanyam, sraddhâsabditânâm apâm kvakid dyuloke homah srutah kvakid ishtâdikârinâm dhûmâdikramenâkâsaprâptir na ka teshâm âpah santi yena tadveshthitânâm gatis tatrâha teshâm keti.
I read, with a MS. of Ân. Gi., âhutyapûrvarûpâh. The so-called antyeshЛi.
And is on that account properly called sraddha.
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