________________
arnsalá
by M. A. MEHENDALE, Poona
Among the rules to be observed during the Dikṣā ceremony we read the following in the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa (3.1.2.21): áthainam šálām prápådayati / sá dhenvaí cânaţúhaś ca nåśniyat 1 dhenvanaduhaú vá idám sárvam bibhịtaḥ/ ... tad dhaitát sarváśyam iva yó dhenvanaduháyor aśniyád ántagatir ival ... tásmad dhenvanaduháyor nåśniyat/ tád u hováca yájñavalkyah-aśnămy evâhám aṁsalám céd bhávatíti "He (the Adhvaryu) then makes him enter the hall. Let him not eat
the flesh) of either the cow or the ox; for the cow and the ox doubtless support everything here on earth. ... Hence, were one to eat (the flesh) of an ox or a cow, there would be, as it were, an eating of everything, or, as it were, a going on to the end (or, to destruction). ... let him therefore not eat (the flesh) of the cow and the ox. Nevertheless Yājñavalkya said, 'I, for one, eat it, provided that it is tender" (Eggeling).
Thus Eggeling translates arsala as 'tender'. Similarly Jacobi', Encycl. of Religion and Ethics s.v. Cow (Hindul, remarks: "The Satapatha Brāhmana, when prohibiting the eating of the flesh of the cow (iii 1,2,21) adds the interesting statement: Yājñavalkya said: "I, for one, eat it provided that it is tender". The meaning 'tender' has been assigned to arsala also by Hultzsch, Inscriptions of Asoka, p. 127, f.n. 8.
According to BR., however, aṁsalá means 'strong'. They derive the word from ářsa 'shoulder' and refer to P. 5.2.98 where it is noticed that the suffix -la is added to amsa in the sense 'strong' (vatsāmsabhyam kāmabale). The Sanskrit lexicons also give the same meaning (balavān, bali) for aṁsala. In this meaning arsala is used also in the classical literature. Apte's dictionary cites Raghu 3.34 and 16.84, and Daśakumāra. 169 (ed. by Godbole and Parab, Bombay 1883) Weber, Ind. Stud. 17.281 (1885), rendered aṁsalá as 'feist', while Oldenberg, Die Weltanschauung der Brāhmaṇa-Texte, p. 209, foot-note, used just the word 'gut' to render amsalá. Keith (Cambridge History of India I. 137-138) observes as follows in connection with the above passage from the Sat.Br. "... the great sage Yājñavalkya
1 For this and the other references in this paper I am indebted to L. ALSDORF's Bei
träge zur Geschichte von Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in Indien (1961), pp. 55/56. ? Cf. Amara 2.6.44 balavan marsalo risalah. Hemacandra 448 arsalo bali. On
Amara., the commentator says amso balam asyästity arhsalah. 3 On the Daśakumāra. passage, the Comm. says ansalaruruṣaḥ marsalapuruṣaḥ.
Madhu Vidyā/139
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
