________________
I KÂNDA, 6 ADHYAYA, 3 BRÂHMANA, 8.
165
is much variegated in colour: on its wings, namely, butter-drops, as it were, have dropped in one place and honey- (or mead-) drops in another, for suchlike, as it were, was the food which he consumed with that (mouth).
6. Tvashtri was furious: 'Has he indeed slain my son ?' he exclaimed. He brought Soma-juice from which Indra was excluded; and just as the Somajuice on being produced had Indra excluded from it (a pendra), so it remained (when it was offered up).
7. Indra thought with himself, “They are now excluding me from Soma !' and though uninvited, he consumed what pure (Soma) there was in the tub, even as the stronger (consumes) that of a weaker. That (Soma), however, injured him; it flowed in all directions from the openings of) his vital airs; from his mouth alone it did not flow, but from all the other (openings of the) vital airs it flowed; hence (was instituted) at that time the ishti, called Sautrâmani: on the occasion of that (ceremony) it is explained how the gods healed him?.
8. Tvashtri was furious, and exclaimed, 'Has he indeed consumed my Soma uninvited ?' However, he himself desecrated the sacrifice, for what pure (Soma) there was left in the tub he let flow into the fire), saying, 'Grow thou, having Indra for thy foe?!' The moment it reached the fire, it
, See V, 5, 4, 2 seq., where the whole legend is repeated; and Taitt. S. II, 4, 12, 1. One of the objects of the Sautrîmanî is the expiation of an immoderate consumption of Soma by a priest.
* According to Taitt. S. II, 4, 12, 1, also the fault committed by Tvashtri consisted in his faulty accentuation of the compound indrasatru in the formula. What he intended to say was that Agni, on drinking the Soma, should grow strong so as to be 'the foe (slayer) of Indra,' and the compound should therefore have been accented on the second member, viz. indrasatru (the foe of
Digitized by Google
