________________
XIII KÂNDA, 3 ADHYAYA, 4 BRÂHMANA, 3.
337
Heaven and Earth; for all the gods are established in heaven and on earth : it is them he thereby gratifies. Now the gods and the Asuras were contending together.
2. They (the gods) spake, We are the Agnayah Svishtakritah' of the horse (sacrifice); let us take out for ourselves a special share: therewith we shall overcome the Asuras.' They took the blood for themselves in order to overcome their rivals : when he offers the blood to the Svishtakrits, it is in order to overcome (his own) rivals; and the spiteful rival of him who knows this is undone by himself.
3. The first oblation (of blood) he offers ? in the
verse is followed in the Samhitâ by a series of twenty formulas (ib. 8-9) of a similar nature to those referred to in the preceding note (i. e. consisting each of a deity and a part of the body of the horse-Agni I gratify with the heart,' &c.), and these again by forty-two expiatory formulas ("To the hair, hail!' &c., ib. 1013), ending with, To Yama, hail! To Antaka (the Ender), hail! To Death, hail! To (the) Brabman, bail! To Brahmanslaying, hail! To the All-gods, haill To Heaven and Earth, hail l' These sixty-two formulas are used with as many ghee-oblations, which are to be performed immediately after the 1319t of the previous set of oblations. Prior, however, again to the last of the forty-two expiatory oblations, (viz. the one made with To Heaven and Earth, haill') there is another set of sixteen oblations (XIII, 3, 6, I seqq.), the so-called 'Asvastomiya ahutayah' or oblations relating to the Stomas of the horse (sacrifice),' each of which has a complete couplet for its offering-formula (Vâg. S. XXV, 24-39). To all these three sets of oblations the term aranyes nûkya' is here extended by the author. At the end of the third set this succession of ghee-oblations is concluded with the last expiatory oblation, that to Heaven and Earth; whereupon the ordinary flesh-oblation to Agni Svishtakrit is performed.
* I.e. the (three) fires, the makers of good offering. · The formula for each of these three special blood-oblations
[44]
Digitized by Google
