Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 545

I ADHYAYA, 2 BRAHMANA, 3.
75
ceived) here whatsoever. By Death indeed all this was concealed, by hunger; for death is hunger. Death (the first being) thought, 'Let me have a body.' Then he moved about, worshipping. From him thus worshipping water was produced. And he said: 'Verily, there appeared to me, while I worshipped (arkate), water (ka).' This is why water is called ar-ka1. Surely there is water (or pleasure) for him who thus knows the reason why water is called arka.
2. Verily water is arka. And what was there as the froth of the water, that was hardened, and became the earth. On that earth he (Death) rested, and from him, thus resting and heated, Agni (Virâg) proceeded, full of light.
3. That being divided itself threefold, Âditya (the sun) as the third, and Vâyu (the air) as the third". That spirit (prâna) became threefold. The head was the Eastern quarter, and the arms this and that quarter
Agni, the fire, which is here used for the Horse-sacrifice. It is found in the Satapatha-brâhmana, Mâdhyandina-sâkhâ X, 6, 5, and there explained as a description of Hiranyagarbha.
1 We ought to read arkasyârkatvam, as in Poley's edition, or ark-kasyârkkatvam, to make the etymology still clearer. The commentator takes arka in the sense of fire, more especially the sacrificial fire employed at the Horse-sacrifice. It may be so, but the more natural interpretation seems to me to take arka here as water, from which indirectly fire is produced. From water springs the earth; on that earth he (Mrityu or Pragâpati) rested, and from him, while resting there, fire (Virâg) was produced. That fire assumed three forms, fire, sun, and air, and in that threefold form it is called prâna, spirit.
2 As Agni, Vâyu, and Âditya.
› Here Agni (Virâg) is taken as representing the fire of the altar at the Horse-sacrifice, which is called Arka. The object of the whole Brahmana was to show the origin and true character of that fire (arka).
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