Satapatha Bramhana Part 02

Author(s): Julius Eggeling
Publisher: Oxford

Page 38

III KÂNDA, I ADHYÂYA, 1 BRÂHMANA, 7.
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one), after enclosing (and consecrating) it with a sacrificial formula, there is a place of worship."
5. 'It is, however, the officiating priests that constitute the place (or medium) of worship: wheresoever wise and learned Brâhmans, versed in sacred lore, perform the sacrifice, there no failure takes place: that (place of worship) we consider the nearest (to the gods)?.'
6. On this (ground) they erect either a hall or a shed, with the top-beams running from west to east?; for the east is the quarter of the gods, and from the east westwards the gods approach men: that is why one offers to them while standing with his face towards the east.
7. For this reason one must not sleep with his
1 That is to say, one who employs such skilled Brahmans for his officiating priests (ritvig) may use sacrificial ground of any description. Kâty. VII, 1, 18.
? Prâkîna-vamsa (prag-vamsa, K.). The 'vamsas' are the horizontal beams supported by the four corner-posts. In the first place two cross-beams are fastened on the corner-posts, to serve as the lintels of the eastern and western doors. Across them tie-beams are then laid, running from west to east, on which mats are spread by way of a roof or ceiling. The term 'pråkina-vamsa' refers to these upper beams (upari-vamsa), and especially to the central beam (prishtha-vamsa or madhyavala) the ends of which rest on the middle of the lintels of the eastern and western doors; cf. Sâyana on Taitt. S. I, 2, 1 (vol. I, pp. 279, 286); Käty. VII, 1, 20 scholl. Inside the Prakina-vamsa there is the Ahavaniya fire immediately facing the east door; the Gârhapatya fire facing the west door; between the two the altar; and south of the latter the Dakshinagni. The shed (vimita) is to be erected on the back (west) part of the sacrificial ground, after the roots have been dug up. It is described as a square structure of ten (or twelve) cubits, somewhat higher in front than at the back; with doors on each side (except, optionally, on the north). The sala, or hall, is to measure twenty cubits by ten. Käty. VII, 1, 19-24 comm.
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