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422
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
(to serve him) either as a house or as a monument; for when any one dies, he is a corpse (sava), and for that (corpse) food (anna) is thereby prepared, hence
savanna,' for, indeed, savanna' is what is mystically called 'smasåna.' But 'smasáh' also are called the eaters amongst the Fathers, and they, indeed, destroy in yonder world the good deeds of him who has had no sepulchre prepared for him: it is for them that he prepares that food, whence it is
smasånna,' for 'smasånna' is what is mystically called 'smasåna.'
2. Let him' not make it too soon (after the deceased man's death) lest he should freshen up his sin; but let him make it a long time after, as thereby he obscures the sin ;—and when people do not even remember the years (that have passed ), as thereby one causes the sin to pass into oblivion. If they do remember,
1 Viz. the Sacrificer, the performer of the funeral rites, being the next of kin.
. This is the way in which the scholiasts interpret the corresponding rule, Kåty. Sr. XXI, 3, 1 (pitrimedhah samvatsarasmritau), instead of when they do not remember it (even once) for years, be brings it about that the sin is forgotten, even in case they should remember it,' as Prof. Delbrück, Altind. Syntax, p. 351 translates the passage. For the subject of the verb 'they remember it,' Prof. Delbrück supplies 'pitarah,' i.e. the dead man's deceased ancestors, instead of the living people, which seems rather improbable. The comment is very corrupt, but it makes at least some allusion to people's talk':-na srutih srutyabhâvas (tâm) tens kirakaranena agham påpakaranam gamayati, kirát smasanam kurvasraranam (? kurvatah sravanam) ganavådospi na srinotîty (1) arthal.
In this way Harisvâmin, as well as the scholiasts on Käty. XXI, 3, 2, construes the clause with the next paragraph, and it is difficult to see how otherwise any satisfactory sense could be extracted from it. At the same time, it can evidently only qualify the first specification of time, as the others will apply in any case.
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