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RTAM
and yatáhl. Hence it is possible to suggest that the word janajo in the rasna? does not refer to real women but refer, figuratively, to fingers. The Haoma stalks held tightly by fingers are apparently spoken of as the ones held in captivity by women.
(2) Alternatively, it is possible that the tight holding of the Haomas has a reference to the practice of the tight binding of the Soma stalks. This is referred to in the Satapatha Brahmanas. After the description of the purchase of the Soma stalks for a Soma sacrifice, we read :
átha somopanáhanasya samutpāryantān uşnisena vigraihnāti ... (18). átha madhye 'ngúljakaśáñ karoti ... tám ayatīva vá enam etát samāyacchann aprāņám iva karotistásyaitad ála evá madhyatdk pranám útssjati(19).
“Having gathered up the ends of the Soma-cloth, he (the Adhvaryu) ties them together by means of the head-band... (18).
"He then makes a finger-hole in the middle of the knot), ... for, in compressing the cloth), he, as it were, strangles him (Soma and the sacrificer) and renders him breathless; hereby now he emits his breath from inside, ..." Eggeling.
In the light of this description it is likely that the word janayo of the Yasna refer to the ends of the cloth. We have to presume that the Avestan word for the end' of the cloth was in the feminine gender, like Sanskrit dasā. If this assumption is correct, the Haomas held tightly by women' would be those which were tied up with the ends of the cloth. It is conceivable that Zarathushtra praises such Haomas.
(2) Yasna 10.14 reads :
mā mē yatha gāuš drafsa asito väram acaire fraša frayantu te mado varazyanuhānho jasantu
1. 2. 3.
9.28.4. 10.17. 3.3.2.18-19. 10.17 In the Sat. Br. passage above, however, the word for the end of the cloth is ánta (m).
Madhu Vidyā/207
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