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VISHNU.
LV, 21.
offerings), together with the sacrifices prescribed (in the Veda), though all united, are not equal to a sixteenth part of the sacrifice performed by reciting (those sacred prayers).
21. A Brâhmana may beyond doubt obtain final emancipation by solely repeating (those prayers), whether he perform any other religious observance or no; one who is benevolent towards all creatures (and does not slay them for sacrifices) is justly called a Brâhmana (or one united to Brahman).
LVI. 1. Now then 1 follow the purifying Mantras from all the Vedas.
Brahman.' (Nand. ; see LIX, 20-25.) Kullûka, on the contrary (on M. II, 86), refers the term Pakayagña to the four first only out of those five offerings, and this interpretation, besides being more simple than Nand.'s, is preferable for several other reasons. First, the offering to Brahman' includes the daily recitation of the Gâyatrî, which is mentioned here as opposed to the four Pâkayagñas. Secondly, the number of four Pâkayagñas is equally given in the Kathaka Grihya-stra; and Devapâla, in his Commentary on that work, gives a definition of them, which agrees in the main with Kullûka's. Four' Pâkayagñas are mentioned in the Grihya-sútras of Kausika, Paraskara, and Sankhayana also. See Weber, Ind. Stud. X, 48. Thirdly, the Pâkayagñas are brought in here as opposed to the Vidhiyagñas or 'sacrifices prescribed by the Veda.' This is probably because the latter are offered in the triad of sacred fires, whereas the term Pâkayagña, in its narrower use, denotes the oblations offered in the domestic fire. Hence, it might come to include the offering to men,' i.e. the feeding of a guest, but certainly not the study of the Veda.
LVI. M. XI, 250-260; Y. III, 302–305; Gaut. XIX, 12 ; XXIV.
1. 1.Now then,' i. e. the previous chapter containing an enumeration of secret sins, an enumeration of the purifying Mantras, by which they may be expiated, follows next. (Nand.)
Digitized by
