Br. III, 9,14. In connection with the ‘revolving legend,’ the conductors of bands of lute-players seem to have sung additional stanzas in which the royal Sacrificer was associated with pious kings of old; see XIII, 4, 3, 3.
XXXII SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
exercise of ingenuity, unless he had at his disposal materials other than those accessible to us. As a rule, however, legends of this kind would seem to have been of the simplest possible description, as may be gathered from the particulars regarding the ‘ Narasams4ni,’ or recitals in praise of (pious) men, which, according to Sankhayana (XVI, 11), take the place of the ‘ revolving legend’ in the ten days’ cycle of the Purushamedha. The Hotr?’s recitals on that occasion consist simply of certain verses, or hymns, of the Rig-veda, generally celebrating the liberality shown by some patron to his priest, preceded by a brief statement merely consisting, it would seem, of a prose paraphrase of the respective verses recited thereafter. This latter set of recitations and legends thus consists entirely of matter taken from, or based on, the Xzg-veda, which is indeed the proper source for the Hotvz priest to resort to for his utterings. The recitations required for the Asvamedha, on the other hand, consist of matter drawn not even from the three older Vedas alone, but also from the Atharvans and Angiras whose names combined usually make up the old designation of the hymns and spells of the Atharva-veda, whilst they are here taken separately as if still representing two different collections of texts ;—nay, the materials, as we have seen, are even drawn from other, probably still later, sources}. This circumstance, added to the fact that the texts of the Black Yagus make no mention of this item of the ceremonial *, might well make one suspect its comparatively late introduction into the Asvamedha ritual; though even this would not, of course, make it any the less strange that no allusion should be made, in the epic account, to this by no means the least interesting feature of the performance. One must, however, bear in mind that the poet’s mind was evidently more intent on telling about the wonderful deeds
1 Tt is hardly likely that some of the texts mentioned (devaganavidya, sarpavidy, &c.) refer merely to portions of the Vedic texts.
3 The singing of stanzas in honour of the king, by a Brahmasa and a Kshatriya, with the accompaniment of lutes, on the other hand, does form part of the Taittirfya ritual, Taitt. Br. III, 9, 14.
INTRODUCTION. XXXiil
3 The singing of stanzas in honour of the king, by a Brahmasa and a Kshatriya, with the accompaniment of lutes, on the other hand, does form part of the Taittirfya ritual, Taitt. Br. III, 9, 14.
INTRODUCTION. XXXiil
of the semi-divine bowman in foreign lands than on recording the regularly recurring rites performed, in the meantime, at home in the presence of the royal sacrificer himself. Even in cases where the horse was kept within a convenient distance from the sacrificial compound all the year round, its warders, themselves partly of royal blood, could hardly have had an opportunity of attending the performance of these rites ; though the popular character of some of these rites, as well as certain expressions used in connection with the ‘revolving legend, would lead one to suppose that they were meant to be witnessed by at least representatives of the various classes of the population.
The ritual arrangements of the Purushamedha, or human sacrifice, of which the Brahmama treats next, seem to have been developed out of those of the Asvamedha. Its first three Soma-days are essentially the same as the three days of the horse-sacrifice, except as regards the difference of victims on the second day. To these the authorities of the White Yagur-veda—and apparently also those of the Black Yagus '—add two more days, whilst the Sankhayana-sitra?, on the other hand, recognises but one additional day. Like the Vaitaéna-sitra, Saakhayana also differs from the other authorities in giving an entirely different character to the central feature of this performance, inasmuch as he makes it a real human sacrifice instead of a merely symbolic one. A peculiar interest thus attaches to this difference of theory, seeing that it involves the question as to how far down the practice of human sacrifices can be traced in India*. That such sacrifices were prac-
1 Whilst the three Samhit&s contain no section relating to the Purushamedha, the Taittirtya-brahmaza (III, 4) enumerates the (symbolic) human victims in much the same way as does the Vagasaneyi-samhita (see the present vol. p. 413 seqq.); and the Apastamba-sttra makes the performance similar to what it is in the White Vagus texts, The Vaitana-sfitra of the Atharva-veda also makes it a five days’ performance.
2 Like the chapter on the Asvamedha, that on the Purushamedha is stated to be taken from the Mah4-Kaushitaki-brahmama.
5 On this question see especially A. Weber, Zeitsch. d. D, M. G. 18, p. 262 ff., repr. in Indische Streifen, IT, p. 54 ff.
[44] c
XXXIV SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
2 Like the chapter on the Asvamedha, that on the Purushamedha is stated to be taken from the Mah4-Kaushitaki-brahmama.
5 On this question see especially A. Weber, Zeitsch. d. D, M. G. 18, p. 262 ff., repr. in Indische Streifen, IT, p. 54 ff.
[44] c
XXXIV SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
tised in early times is clearly shown by unmistakable traces of them in the ritualistic works; but in this respect India only shares a once almost universal custom. The question, then, which chiefly interests us here is whether or not this practice was still kept up at-the time with which we are here concerned. Now, as regards the texts of the Yagur-veda—that is, the text-books of the sacrificial priest car’ eéfoxnv—it seems pretty clear that they no longer recognise the sacrifice of human beings; and the same may be said of the remaining ritualistic literature with the exception of the two works above referred to with regard to this particular sacrifice. The points bearing on this question, being very few in number, may be briefly reviewed here.
First as regards the story of Sunaksepa which is recited at the Ragasdya sacrifice1, and has been several times treated before. King Hariséandra, being childless, prays to Varuna to grant him a son, vowing to sacrifice him to the god. Ason is born to him, and is called Rohita ; but, in spite of the god’s repeated demands, the fulfilment of the vow is constantly deferred ; till at last the youth, having been invested in armour, is told of the fate awaiting him. He, however, refuses to be sacrificed, and escapes to the forest. The king thereupon is seized with dropsy; and the son, hearing of this, hastens homeward to save his father. On the way he is met by Indra who urges him to wander, and he accordingly does so for a year. The same is repeated five different times. In the sixth year, the prince, while wandering in the forest, comes across a starving Brahman, Agigarta, who lives there with his wife and three sons, and who consents to sell him one of his sons for a hundred cows to serve him as a ransom to Varuza. The Brahman wishing to keep his eldest son, whilst the mother refuses to part with the youngest, the choice falls upon
1 See part iii, p. 95.
* Cf. Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 108 ff. ;
M. Haug, Aitareya-brahmana, II, p. 460 ff.; R. Roth, Weber’s Ind. Stud. J, 475 ff.; Ul, 11a ff
INTRODUCTION. “XXXV
95.
* Cf. Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 108 ff. ;
M. Haug, Aitareya-brahmana, II, p. 460 ff.; R. Roth, Weber’s Ind. Stud. J, 475 ff.; Ul, 11a ff
INTRODUCTION. “XXXV
the second boy, called Sunadsepa. Rohita now returns to his father who, having been told of the transaction, then Proposes to Varuza to offer the Brahman youth in lieu of his son; and the god, deeming a Brahman better than a Kshatriya, consents to the exchange, and orders the king to perform the Ragasdya sacrifice, and to make the youth the chief victim on the Abhishe#antya, or day of consecration. Four renowned Xishis officiate as offering-priests ; but when the human sacrifice is to be consummated, no one will undertake to bind the victim. The boy's own father, Agigarta, then volunteers to do so for another hundred cows; and subsequently he even undertakes to slay his son for a similar reward. But when the poor lad sees his own father coming towards him, whetting his knife, and becomes aware that he is really to be slain, ‘as if he were not a man,’ he bethinks himself of calling upon the gods for help; and by them he is successively referred from _ one to another, till by uttering three verses in praise of Ushas, the Dawn, he is released from his fetters, whilst the king is freed from his malady. Subsequently one of the four priests, the royal sage Visvamitra, receives Sunadsepa as his son, conferring upon him the name of Devarata (Theodotos), and refuses to give him up to Agigarta ; and when the latter calls on his son to return to him, and not to desert his ancestral race, he replies, ‘ What has never been found even amongst Sidras, thou hast been seen with a knife in thy hand, and hast taken three hundred cows for me, O Angiras!’ And on his father avowing his guilt, and promising to make over the cattle to him, he again replies, ‘He who has once done wrong will commit another sin; thou hast not abandoned the ways of a Sidra: what thou hast done is irremediable’; and ‘is irremediable, echoes Visvamitra, who then formally adopts him as his son.
This legend ', so far from bearing witness to the existence
1 The earliest reference to the myth or story of Sunasepa is in Xzg-veda I, 24, 11-13; V, 2, 7, where he is apparently alluded to as having been actually
C2
XXXVI SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
This legend ', so far from bearing witness to the existence
1 The earliest reference to the myth or story of Sunasepa is in Xzg-veda I, 24, 11-13; V, 2, 7, where he is apparently alluded to as having been actually
C2
XXXVI SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
of human sacrifices as a generally recognised practice, at the time when it originated, would rather seem to mark: this particular case as an exceptional one. For, if it were not so, how comes it that the king’s four high-priests—who, if any, must have been looked upon as thorough masters of the sacrificial science—should have refused to assist in the immolation of the human victim ordered by the deity, leaving it to be accomplished by the sullied hands of the wretched father? But there is another feature of the story which cannot but strike one as very peculiar. Why should the childless king pray for the birth of a son only to make a sacrifice of him? He has been told to do so by the holy sage Narada: is one then to understand that the sage’s advice, as well as Varuza’s consent, is given merely to try the king's faith and truthfulness? If so, the case is similar to that of Abraham’s sacrifice in the land of Moriah, only that the king’s faith proves less intense and exalted—perhaps more humanly faint-hearted—than that of the Jewish patriarch. _ But the most striking feature of the legend doubtless is the part played in it by the unnatural father; and this feature seems indeed to impart to the tale something of the character of an allegorical representation of the contrast between a barbarous (and perhaps earlier) and a more civilised phase of life and moral feeling’. In this respect two points deserve to be noticed, viz. the coarseness of the synonymous names (‘dog’s tail’) of the three sons of the Brahman ?; and the fact that the latter belongs to the Angiras stock, a name intimately associated with superrescued from the stake, or from (three) stakes to which he was bound either for sacrifice, or, as Roth prefers, for torture.
1 In the Sabhaparvan of the Mahabharata (II, 6275 seqq.), as was first pointed out by Lassen, Krishna accuses Gardsandha, king of Magadha and Kedi, residing at Mathur, of having carried off numerous vanquished kings and princes to his city, and keeping them confined in his mountain stronghold with a view to afterwards sacrificing them (at his RAgasflya) to the lord of Um (Rudra) ; adding subsequently (v. 864) that ‘the immolation of men was never seen at any time.’
* His own name ‘ Agigarta,’ on the other hand, is taken by the St. Petersburg Dictionary to mean ‘one who has nothing to swallow,’ and would thus be merely descriptive of his condition of life.
INTRODUCTION, XXXVIL
stitious rites’ on the one hand, and with the ritual of the fire-altar ? on the other.
Petersburg Dictionary to mean ‘one who has nothing to swallow,’ and would thus be merely descriptive of his condition of life.
INTRODUCTION, XXXVIL
stitious rites’ on the one hand, and with the ritual of the fire-altar ? on the other.
Now, it is exactly in connection with the building of the fire-altar that the clearest, and most unmistakable trace of an old practice of human sacrifices—or rather of the slaying of men for sacrificial purposes—occurs. In laying down the bottom layer of the altar, the pan which had been used by the Sacrificer for carrying about the sacred fire for a year is built into this layer, with heads of the five recognised sacrificial animals >—man, horse, ox, sheep, and goat—put therein, in order to impart stability to the altar (Sat. Br. VII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.). In a previous passage of the Brahmaza * (I, 2, 3, 6 seq.) where the relative value of non-animal offering-materials and the five sacrificial animals is discussed, it was stated that, whilst the gods were making use of one after another of these animals, the sacrificial essence gradually passed from one to the other, thus rendering the previous one useless for sacrifice, until it finally passed into the earth whence it entered the rice and barley afterwards used for sacrificial dishes. The general purport of this passage would seem to be to indicate a gradual tendency towards substituting the lower for the higher animals, and ultimately vegetable for animal offerings; though, as a matter of fact, animals continued of
Viz. in their connection with the Atharva-veda, In Mah4bh. V, 548-51 Aagiras praises Indra by means of ‘ Atharvavedamantraid.’ Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. I, p. 297.
2 Both in making the fire-pan (ukh4) and in laying down the bricks of the fire-altar, the expression ‘ aigirasvat’ (as in the case of Angiras) frequently occurs in the formulas; cf. VI, 1, 2, 38; 3, 1, 38 ff.; 4, 1,1 ff.
3 All that is said in the Brahmana regarding the headless bodies of the five victims is (VI, 2, 1, 7 seqq.) that Pragapati, having cut off the heads, and put them on (the altar, i.e. on himself), plunged four of the trunks into the water, and brought the sacrifice to a completion by (offering) the he-goat (not a hegoat, as translated), and that he subsequently gathered up the water and mud ~ \clay) in which those corpses had lain, and used them for making bricks for the altar. The view that the other four bodies should likewise be offered is rejected by the author, who rather seems to suggest that they should be allowed to float away on the water,
* A very similar passage occurs in Ait. Br. VI, 8, on which cp. Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 420.
XXXVili SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
Br. VI, 8, on which cp. Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 420.
XXXVili SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
course to be commonly sacrificed in later times. Now as regards the heads of the five victims, the author subsequently (VI, 2, 1, 37 seqq.) makes some further remarks which go far to show that his previous statements referred only to the traditional practice which, however, was no longer in use in his own day, and had probably not been so for generations past. He mentions various expedients adopted by some priests with a view to keeping up at least some semblance of the old custom,—viz. either by procuring real heads from some source or other, or by using heads made of gold or clay ; but they are summarily dismissed as profane and fraudulent counterfeits ; and the author then remarks somewhat vaguely and diplomatically that ‘one may slay those five victims as far as one may be able (or inclined) to do so, for PragApati was the first to slaughter them, and Sy4parza Sayakdyana the last, and in the interval also people used to slaughter them; but at the present day people slaughter only (one of?) those two, the (he-goat) for Pragdpati, and tke one for Vayu;’ after which he proceeds to explain in detail the practice then in ordinary use. Later on (VII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.), the Brahmana expounds in the usual way the formulas used in the traditional, and theoretically still available procedure, though in the actual performance perhaps only the formulas relating to the particular heads? used would be muttered. While Y4g#avalkya thus, at least in theory, deals rather cautiously with this feature of the traditional custom, the theologians of the Black Yagus* take up a somewhat bolder position. Indeed it is evidently against this older school of ritualists that some of the censure of our Brahmava is directed. For though they too allow, as an alternative practice, the use of a complete set of five heads, they make
1 This doubtless is what is meant (cf. Katy. XVI, 1, 38); and ‘atha’ at the beginning of VI, 2, 2, 6 ought accordingly to have been taken in the rather unusual sense of ‘ or’ (?‘ or rather’), instead of ‘then.’ Cf. VI, a, 2, 15.
2 According to Ap. Sr. XVI, 17, 19-20, however, even if there is only one head (that of Vayu’s he-goat) all the formulas are to be pronounced over it.
* The Maitr. Samhita, however, does not scem to refer to this particular point in its Brahmasa sections.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
VI, a, 2, 15.
2 According to Ap. Sr. XVI, 17, 19-20, however, even if there is only one head (that of Vayu’s he-goat) all the formulas are to be pronounced over it.
* The Maitr. Samhita, however, does not scem to refer to this particular point in its Brahmasa sections.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
no mention of a man being killed for this purpose, but enjoin that a dead man’s head is to be bought for twenty-one beans}, which is then to be laid against an ant-hill with seven holes in order to again supply it with the seven ‘ vital airs of the head’; whereupon three stanzas relating to Yama are to be sung round about it to redeem it from the god of death. Besides the four animals, there is also to be a he-goat sacred to Pragapati, the offering of which is to complete the animal sacrifice2 In this school also’, the ordinary practice, however, is to kill only a he-goat for Vayu Niyutvat, and to use its head for putting it in the pan placed in the bottom layer of the altar. As regards the Rig-veda ritual, the Kaushitaki-brahmaza, as Prof. Weber ‘has pointed out, leaves a choice between a he-goat for Prag4pati and one for Vayu; whilst the S4akh4yana-sitra, curiously enough, again adds the alternative course of using the set of five heads.
The same scholar has drawn attention to another rite in the sacrificial ceremonial which seems to him to show clear traces of human sacrifice. At the purificatory bath at the end of the Asvamedha, the Sacrificer is to be purged of any guilt he may have committed against Varuza by an oblation made to Gumbaka (Varuma) on the bald head of aman possessed of certain repulsive features, whilst standing inthe water. To these particulars,—as given in the present work (XIII, 3, 6, 5), the Taitt. Brahmawa (III, 9, 15), and Katyayana’s Stra (XX, 8, 16),—Sankhayana (XVI, 18)
1 Or, according to Apastamba, for seven beans; the head to be that of a Kshatriya or a Vaisya killed either by an arrow-shot or by lightning, and apparently to be severed from the body at the time of purchase (which, as Professor Weber rightly remarks, is a merely symbolic one). As, however, the particulars given by Apastamba are not mentioned in the older works, they may not unlikely have been introduced by him to meet some of the objections raised by the Vagasaneyins to whose views he generally pays some attention. Otherwise the transaction might seem rather suspicious,
2 Taitt. S. V, 1, 83, indeed, seems to speak of the other four animals being set free after fire has been carried round, so that their sacrificial use would be merely symbolical. Whether in that case only the head of the one animal would be used, or the man’s head along with it, seems doubtful.
> Cf. Taitt. S. V, 5.
xl SATAPATIIA-BRAHMANA,
Whether in that case only the head of the one animal would be used, or the man’s head along with it, seems doubtful.
> Cf. Taitt. S. V, 5.
xl SATAPATIIA-BRAHMANA, again adds further particulars, viz. that the man is to be a Brahmama of the Atreya family, bought (or hired) for a thousand cows, and that he is to enter the river till the water flows into his mouth. Now Prof.Weber is of opinion that this ceremony would be meaningless if the man were not actually drowned. I fail, however, to see the necessity of this assumption, seeing that even a purely symbolical interpretation of the ceremony will give it all the significance of the real act. That the Yagus texts contain nothing that could make one suspect that the man was actually drowned is beyond doubt ; but even Sankh4yana’s statement that the water is to flow into his mouth is probably only meant to suggest the nearness and semblance of death by drowning. Otherwise the oblation could hardly have been performed in anything like a decent form. Besides, Sankhayana further states that, after the completion of the oblation, ‘they drive him (the man) out, thinking that the guilt of the village-outcasts is (thereby) driven out!’ Here the verb ‘ni/#-sidh’ could hardly have been used if the man was to be driven farther into the water. What is meant is probably that the man was to be driven out from the water, and possibly also from the village, to live an anchorite’s life in the forest.
If now we turn our attention to the Purushamedha, or ‘human sacrifice’ proper, we find that the Yagus texts, as far as they deal with this ceremony at all?, treat it as
1 The compound ‘ nifshiddhapapmana’ (apagramah) ’ may possibly be meant in the sense that the evil deeds of the outcasts are driven out (prevented from troubling the peace of the village) ; Katy. XX, 8, 17-18, however, states that when the Sacrificer has stepped out (of the water), evil-doers enter (to bathe in the water) without having performed any (other) rites, and that they are then said to be ‘ purified by the Asvamedha.’
2 Besides the description of the ceremony in the present work (XIII, 6, 1-2, 20), only the Taittiriya-brabmavea (I1I, 4) seems to refer to it, enumerating merely the would-be victims who, according to Apastamba, as quoted by Sdyava, are eventually set free. Professor Weber’s suggestion that they may possibly at one time have been intended to be all of them slaughtered can hardly have been meant seriously. One might as well suppose that, at the Asvamedha, all the ‘evil-doers’ who, according to Katyayana, are to bathe in the river, were meant to be drowned.
INTRODUCTION. xli
One might as well suppose that, at the Asvamedha, all the ‘evil-doers’ who, according to Katyayana, are to bathe in the river, were meant to be drowned.
INTRODUCTION. xli
a purely symbolical performance. A large number of men and women, apparently intended to represent all classes of the community, are bound to eleven sacrificial posts, and after the necessary rites, concluding with the ‘ paryagnikarana ’—or the carrying of fire round the oblations—have been performed on them, they are one and all set free ; the sacrifice then proceeding with the offering of the set of eleven animal victims. That the ceremony in this form, with its pedantically elaborate array of symbolic human victims, cannot possibly lay claim to anyvery great antiquity is self-evident; the only question is whether it has not come to take the place of some other form of human sacrifice. Now, after the foregoing statement of facts, it would be idle to deny that the existence, at one time, of a simple form of human sacrifice is not only quite possible, but is indeed highly probable; and it would be no more than might be expected, if such a practice should eventually have revolted the moral sense of the more refined classes of the community !, just as it happened, little more than a hundred years ago, in the case of the scarcely less odious practice of the burning of witches in Christian lands.
The practice of human sacrifices seems, however, to receive evidence of a yet more direct and unmistakable kind than the facts hitherto mentioned, from the ceremonial of the Purushamedha, as set forth in the Sankhayana and Vaitana Sdtras. If this evidence has been reserved here to the last, it is because there seems reason to believe that, in the form in which it is presented in those works, the sacrifice was never actually performed, and probably never meant to be performed, but that we have here to do with a mere theoretical scheme intended to complete the sacrificial system. The importance of the subject makes it, however, desirable that we should take a somewhat closer view of the procedure of the ‘human sacrifice,’ as laid down in those two Sdtras.
1 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable.
xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
1 When the practice became generally recognised that the Sacrificer (and priests) should eat a portion of the offered victim, this alone would, as Professor Weber suggests, have tended to make human sacrifices impracticable.
xlii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
Sankh. XVI, 10, 1. Pragdpati, having offered the Asvamedha, beheld the Purushamedha : what he had not gained by the Asvamedha, all that he gained by the Purushamedha!; and so does the sacrificer now, in performing the Purushamedha, gain thereby all that he had not gained by the Asvamedha. 2, 3. The whole of the Asvamedha ceremonial (is here performed); and an addition thereto. 4-8. First oblations to Agni Kama (desire), A. Datrz (the giver), and A. Pathikrizt (the path-maker)... 9. Having bought a Brahmaza or a Kshatriya for a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses, he sets him free for a year to do as he pleases in everything except breaches of chastity. 10. And they guard him accordingly. 11. For a year there are (daily) oblations to Anumati (approval), Pathy4 Svasti (success on the way), and Aditi. 12. Those (three daily oblations) to Savitré? in the reverse order. 13. By way of revolving legends (the Hotri recites) Narasamsani . . .— XVI, 11, 1-33 enumerate the Naérasamsani °, together with the respective Vedic passages.—XVI, 12, 1-7. There are twenty-five stakes, each twenty-five cubits long . ..; and twenty-five Agnishomiya victims. 8. Of the (three) Asvamedha days the first and last (are here performed). g-11. The second (day) is a pa#kavimsa-stoma one... 12. The Man, a Gomrega, and a hornless (polled) he-goat— these are the Pragapatya‘* (victims). 13. A Bos Gaurus, a Gayal, an elk (sarabha), a camel, and a Mayu Kimpurusha (? shrieking monkey) are the anustaraz4A4. 14-16. And the (other) victims in groups of twenty-five for the twenty-five seasonal deities... 17. Having made the adorned Man smell (kiss) the chanting-ground, (he addresses him) with the eleven verses (Kig-v. X, 15, 1-11) without ‘om,—‘ Up shall rise (the Fathers worthy of Soma), the lower, the
1 The Asvamedha section of the same work begins:—Prag4pati desired, ‘May I gain all my desires, may I attain all attainments.’ He beheld this three days’ sacrificial performance, the Asvamedha, and took it, and offered with it; and by offering with it he gained all his desires, and attained all attainments.
2 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii.
* See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq.
INTRODUCTION, xliii
2 See XIII, 4, 2, 6-17. ® See p. xxxii.
* See XIII, 2, 2, 2 seqq.
INTRODUCTION, xliii
higher, and the middle ones. 18. The Apri verses are ‘Agnir mrityu#’... 20. They then spread a red cloth, woven of kusa grass, for the Man to lie upon. 21. The Udg&tri approaches the suffocated. Man with (the chant of) a Saman to Yama (the god of death).— XVI, 13, 1. The Hotri with (the recitation of) the Purusha Narayaza (litany). 2. Then the officiating priests—Hotri, Brahman, Udgatrz, Adhvaryu—approach him each with two verses of the hymn (on Yama and the Fathers) Rég-v. X, 14, ‘Revere thou with offering King Yama Vaivasvata, the gatherer of men, who hath walked over the wide distances tracing out the path for many.’ 3-6. They then heal the Sacrificer (by reciting hymns X, 137; 161; 163; 186; 59; VII, 35). 7-18. Ceremonies analogous to those of the Asvamedha (cf. XIII, 5, 2, 1 seqq.), concluding with the Brahmavadya (brahmodya).— XVI, 14, 1-20. Details about chants, &c. ; the fourth (and last) day of the Purushamedha to be performed like the fifth of the Przsh¢kya-shadaha.
Vait. S. XX XVII, 10. The Purushamedha (is performed) like the Asvamedha... 12. There are offerings to Agni Kama, Datr#, and Pathikrét. 13. He causes to be publicly proclaimed, ‘Let all that is subject to the Sacrificer assemble together!’ 14. The Sacrificer says, ‘To whom shall I give a thousand (cows) and a hundred horses to be the property of his relatives? Through whom shall I gain my object?’ 15. If a Brahmawa or a Kshatriya comes forward, they say, ‘ The transaction is completed.’ 16. If no one comes forward, let him conquer his nearest enemy, and perform the sacrifice with him. 17. To that (chosen man) he shall give that (price) for his relatives. 18. Let him make it be publicly known that, if any one’s wife were to speak !, he will seize that man’s whole property, and kill herself, if she be not a Brahmaza woman. 19. When, after being bathed and adorned, he (the man) is set free, he (the priest) recites the hymns A.V. XIX,6; X, 2.—20. For a year (daily) offerings to Pathyd Svasti, Aditi, and
' That is, as it would seem, with a view to dissuading her husband from offering himself as a victim.
xliv SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, ~
Anumati. 21. At the end of the year an animal offering to Indra-Pfishan. 22. The third day is a Mahvrata. 23. When (the man’) is bound to the post, he repeats the three verses, ‘Up shall rise’ . ..; and when he is unloosened, the utth4pani-verses. 24-26. When he is taken to the slaughtering-place (the priest repeats) the hariziverses; when he is made to lie down, the two verses, ‘ Be thou soft for him, O Earth’; and when he has been suffocated, (he repeats) the Sahasrabahu (or Purusha N4rayaza) litany, and hymns to Yama and Sarasvati — XXXVIII, 1-9 treat of the subsequent ceremonies, including the recitation, by the Brahman, of hymns with the view of healing the Sacrificer.
Now, even a slight consideration of the ritual of the Purushamedha, as sketched out in these two works, must, I think, convince us that this form of human. sacrifice cannot possibly be recognised—any more than the one propounded in the Satapatha and Taittiriya Brahmanas— as having formed part of the traditional sacrificial ceremonial; and that, in fact, it is nothing more than what Sankhayana appears to claim for it, viz. an adaptation, and that a comparatively modern adaptation, of the existing Asvamedha ritual. Indeed, it seems to me by no means unlikely that the two different schemes of the Purushamedha originated at about the same time, and that they were intended to fill up a gap in the sacrificial system which seemed to require for Man, as the chief sacrificial animal, a more definite and, so to speak, a more dignified . place in the ceremonial than was up to that time accorded to him. The circumstance that the account of this sacrifice, as given in the Saakhdyana-sitra, presents some of the ordinary features of Brahmava diction, and that it is indeed actually assigned by the commentary to the Maha-Kaushitaka, should not be allowed to weigh with us, since thig is most likely done for the very purpose of securing for this scheme some sort of authoritative sanction of respectable
1 Dr, Garbe, in his translation, makes this and the subsequent rules refer (erroneously I think) to the animal victims of rule a1.
INTRODUCTION. xlv
INTRODUCTION. xlv
antiquity’. For seeing that the older ritualistic works know nothing of it, it seems sufficiently evident that this human sacrifice could not possibly have been rite performed in Sankhayana’s time, since no proper priest—no genuine Adhvaryu and Udgatré, at all events—could have been found to perform it. And, indeed, it can scarcely be without significance that the Atharva-sitra is the only other work which recognises the ceremony; and that nearly all the hymns and verses used in connection with the immolation of the human victim are taken from the Atharvan and the tenth mamzdala of the Rik. Nay, the very fact that, in both Satra works, this sacrifice is represented as being undertaken, not for the great object of winning immortal life, but for the healing of the Sacrificer’s bodily infirmities, might seem sufficient to stamp the ceremony as one partaking more of the nature of the superstitious rites of the Atharvan priests than of that of the great sacrifices of the traditional Srauta ritual. If thus we find it impossible to recognise the Purushamedha as a genuine member of the sacrificial system, this is still more the case as regards the Sarvamedha, or all-sacrifice, a ten days’ performance which includes amongst its component parts, not only the Purushamedha, but also the Asvamedha, the Vagapeya, and the Visvagit with all the Stomas and Przshé#as,—it thus being the very ceremonial performance that might seem calculated to fitly crown the edifice of the sacrificial theory. As regards the ritualistic treatment of this sacrifice, the number of authorities dealing with it shows a further diminution from that of the Purushamedha. For whilst the Satapatha-brahmaza agrees with the S4nkhdyana and Vaita4na Sitras on the general features of its ritual—with the exception, of course, of the radical difference as to the character of the human sacrifice—the Taittiriya-brahmava, which gave at least the list of the symbolic victims of the Purushamedha, is altogether silent on the Sarvamedha; this ceremony being,
? On this and other passages referred to the Maha-Kaushftaka, cp. Professor Aufrecht’s judicious remarks, Ait. Br., p. v.
xlvi SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, however, dealt with in some of the Stra works connected with the Black Yagus.
On this and other passages referred to the Maha-Kaushftaka, cp. Professor Aufrecht’s judicious remarks, Ait. Br., p. v.
xlvi SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA, however, dealt with in some of the Stra works connected with the Black Yagus.
The concluding chapter of the thirteenth ka#da contains a valuable and interesting account of the preparation of the burial-place or sepulchral mound, and the interment of the charred bones previously preserved, in an urn or jar, for some indefinite period since the burning of the dead body. Of especial interest, in this account, is the statement that the bones, when committed to the grave, are to be arranged in accordance with their natural position, the spaces between them being then filled up with bricks in such a way as to present, as in the case of the fire-altar, a fancied resemblance to the shape of a bird. It is difficult to see what explanation could be offered for this feature of the obsequies, except a vague belief in some form of future resurrection.
The fourteenth kaxda, up to the beginning of the Brzhadaranyaka, is entirely taken up with the exposition of the Pravargya, an important, though optional and subsidiary, ceremony performed on the Upasad-days of Soma-sacrifices, Whilst the central feature of this sacrificial performance consists of a ceremony of an apparently simple and unpretending character, viz. the preparation of a hot draught of milk and ghee, the Gharma, which the Sacrificer has to take, after oblations have been made thereof to various deities, the whole rite is treated with a considerable amount of mystic solemnity calculated to impart to it an air of unusual significance. A special importance is, however, attached to the rough clay pot, used for boiling the draught, and manufactured and baked in the course of the performance itself; it is called Mahavira, i.e. the great man or hero, and Samr4g, or sovereign lord, and is made the object of fervid adoration as though it were a veritable deity of well-nigh paramount power.
Although the history of this ceremony is somewhat obscure, the place assigned to it in the Soma-ritual would lead one to suppose that its introduction must have taken place at a time when the main procedure of the Somasacrifice had already been definitely settled. This con-
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Although the history of this ceremony is somewhat obscure, the place assigned to it in the Soma-ritual would lead one to suppose that its introduction must have taken place at a time when the main procedure of the Somasacrifice had already been definitely settled. This con-
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
clusion is also borne out by the position taken up towards this ceremony by the authorities of the Black Yagur-veda. For whilst the Maitrayaziya Samhita gives at least the formulas used for it, the Kaz/aka, on the other hand, takes no notice whatever of it, and the Taittiriya school only deals with it in its Arazyaka. Nevertheless, this ceremony can boast of a respectable antiquity, seeing that it is treated of at some length in the Brahmamas of the Rik—viz. Ait. Br. I, 18-22; Kaush. Br. VIII, 3-7; and this circumstance alone might almost seem to justify the inference that it was in that very school of ritualists that this item of the sacrificial ceremonial was first elaborated. It is very doubtful, however, whether such an inference would find any support in the dogmatic explanation of the ceremony offered by some of the theologians of the Rig-veda. At the end of the Pravargya section, in a passage which has a somewhat disconnected appearance, and seems hardly in consonance with previous dogmatic explanations, the. Aitareya- brahmaza makes the secret import of the ceremony to be that of a mystic union of the gods resulting in the generation of a new, divine body for the Sacrificer. This explanation, having been previously adopted by Haug and Garbe, was recorded without question in a note to part ii (p. 104) of this translation. Further consideration of this matter has, however, convinced me that the theory referred to fails altogether to account for the origin of the ceremony, as well as for important points in its performance which find a ready explanation in the theory applied to it by the present work, as well as by the Taittirtya~-Arazyaka and the Kaushitaki-brahmama. For seeing that the main object of sacrificial performances generally is the reconstruction of Pragdpati, the personified universe, and (the divine body of) the Sacrificer, it is difficult to see why, for this latter purpose, a new and special ceremony should have been thought necessary; and, besides, the rejected theory, if it is at all to account for the high honour rendered to the Mah4vira pot, would almost involve the recognition of a form of Linga-worship which surely would require very much stronger evidence than the isolated and xlviii SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
(to my mind) somewhat suspicious passage on which this theory is based.
(to my mind) somewhat suspicious passage on which this theory is based.
Now, as regards the rival theory underlying the exposition of the Pravargya, as given in the Satapatha-brahmaaa, it makes the Mahavira pot a symbol of the sun, whilst the hot milk draught represents the divine flood of life and light with which the performer of the ceremony becomes imbued. These symbolic interpretations, whatever we may think of them othcrwise, certainly adapt themselves admirably to the general sacrificial imagery. As the sun is the head of the universe—or, in figurative language, the head of Pragapati, the world-man—so its earthly, and earthen, counterpart, the Mahavira. pot, is the head of Vishzu, the sacrificial man, and the Sacrificer; and this ceremony is thus performed in order to complete the universe and sacrifice, as well as the divine body of the Sacrificer, by supplying them with their head, their crowning-piece, so to speak ; and to imbue them with the divine essence of life and light. For this purpose the theory rather ingeniously avails itself of certain myths vaguely alluded to in the Rig-veda, according to which (X, 171, 2) Indra cut off the head of Makha (here identified with Vishzu, the sacrifice and the sun-god); and (I, 116, 12; 117, 223 119, 9) Dadhya#é&, the son of Atharvan, was fitted by the Asvins with a horse’s head, and this hippocephalous creature then communicated to them the Madhu, or sweet thing,—that is, as would appear, the sweet doctrine of the Soma, the drink of immortality. This symbolism readily explains some points connected with the Pravargya ceremony, for which no obvious reason seems otherwise to suggest itself. For one thing, it accounts for the deep reverence shown to the Gharma vessel, which, in fact, is no other than the giver of light and life himself; whilst the optional character . of the ceremony explains itself from the fact that the Soma-cup, of which the Sacrificer will subsequently partake, might of itself be expected to supply him with the blessings which he hopes to derive from the Pravargya. Aad, finally, it also becomes clear why the Pravargya must not form part of a man’s first performance of a Soma-
INTRODUCTION. xlix
Aad, finally, it also becomes clear why the Pravargya must not form part of a man’s first performance of a Soma-
INTRODUCTION. xlix
sacrifice. For the Pravargya,as we have seen, is performed on the preliminary days of the Soma-sacrifice, before the ' pressing of the Soma has taken place ; and it obviously is only after he has actually partaken of the Soma-drink, and has thereby potentially ‘put on immortality,’ that he can partake of the Gharma, and thus become imbued with the celestial light’. The dogmatical explanation of this ceremony thus puts, as it were, the finishing touch to that strange allegory by which the Indian theologians sought to make the sacrificial ceremonial a practical illustration of that unity of the All which speculation had been striving to compass since the days when the emptiness of the Vedic pantheon had dawned upon the thinking mind, and when critically inclined bards ventured to sing of the national god ?: ‘ Not fora single day hast thou fought, nor hast thou any .enemy, O Maghavan: illusion is what they say concerning thy battles; no foe hast thou fought either to-day ° or aforetime.’
As regards the optional and somewhat recondite character of the Pravargya ceremony, it is probably not without significance that the section dealing therewith is combined with the speculative Brihadarazyaka so as to make up with it the last book of the Brahmaza,—the Aranyaka-kanda, or forest section. Such, at least, is the case in the Madhyandina text, where the Pravargya section occupies the first three adhydyas of the last (fourteenth) book; whilst the K4zva text presents a slight difficulty in this respect. What passes generally as the seventeenth (and last) kamda of that version, consists of the Brihad4ranyaka; whilst the sixteenth kanda begins with the section on funeral rites, corresponding to the last
’ The Kaushitaki-brahmavza (VIII, 3), on the other hand, seems to justify the prohibition on the ground that, prior to the first complete Soma-sacrifice, the body of the Sacrifice (and Sacrificer) is incomplete, and therefore not ready to receive its head, in the shape of the Pravargya. Hence also the same work allows the Pravargya to be performed at the first Soma-sacrifice of one who is thoroughly versed in the scriptures, since such a one is himself the body, or self, of the sacrifice.
2 See XI, 1, 6, 10.
[44] d
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] SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
Hence also the same work allows the Pravargya to be performed at the first Soma-sacrifice of one who is thoroughly versed in the scriptures, since such a one is himself the body, or self, of the sacrifice.
2 See XI, 1, 6, 10.
[44] d
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] SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
(eighth) adhyAya of kanda XIII of the MAdhyandina recension, and is stated ' to include also the Pravargya section (Madhy. XIV, 1-3). Now it is a strange fact that the six adhydyas of the Brzhadéranyaka (XIV, 4-9 in the Madhyandina text) are counted 3-8 in the Kava text,—a circumstance which manifestly can only be explained by the Pravargya section being taken to form the first two adhydayas of the last book of that version. This, indeed, is probably implied in the remark added to the description of a MS. of the Kazva text in the catalogue of the MSS. of the Sanskrzt College, Benares (p. 44), according to which ‘Pravargyakaudasya patrazi’ are ‘ bhinnapramavdksharazi,’ —that is, ‘the leaves of the Pravargya section have a special pagination’ (? i.e. they are numbered independently of the section on funeral rites preceding them).
And now my task is done, and I must take leave of this elaborate exposition of the sacrificial ordinances of Indian theology. For well-nigh a score of years the work has ‘dragged its slow length along,’ and during that time it has caused me—and, I doubt not, has caused some of my readers, too—not a few weary hours. In the early stages of the work, my old teacher, Professor Albrecht Weber, than whom no one is more deeply versed in the intricacies of the sacrificial ritual, wrote to me: ‘ You have undertaken a difficult, a most difficult task; and I can only hope that your courage and patience will not fail you before you are through with it.’ And, indeed, I must confess that many a time I felt as if I should never be able to get through my task ; and but for Professor Max Miiller’s timely exhortations and kindly encouragement, the work might perhaps never have been completed. ‘I know,’ he once wrote to me, ‘you will thank me one day for having pressed you to go on with your work ;’ and now I do indeed thank him most sincerely and with all my heart for the kindness and patience he has shown me these many years. But, strange to say, now that the work is completed, I feel as if I could not do without working at it; and certainly, if
1 Cf. A. Weber, Satapatha-brahmasea, p. xi.
INTRODUCTION. li
But, strange to say, now that the work is completed, I feel as if I could not do without working at it; and certainly, if
1 Cf. A. Weber, Satapatha-brahmasea, p. xi.
INTRODUCTION. li
a second edition could ever have been required of a work of this kind, it would have found me ready once more to work my way through the bewildering maze of rites; and I know only too well that I should have to correct many a mistake, and could improve many an awkwardly expressed passage. In conclusion, a word of cordial thanks is due to the staff of the University Press, whose patience must often have been severely tried in the course of the printing of this work, and who, by the excellence of their presswork, and by their careful supervision, have materially lightened my task, and saved me much tedious and irksome labour.
J. EGGELING.
EDINBURGH, December 30, 1899.
SATAPATHA-BRAHMAWA. ELEVENTH KANDA. ;
THE FULL AND NEW-MOON SACRIFICE.
First ApuyAya. First BRAHMANA.
1. Verily, Pragapati, the Sacrifice, is the Year: the night of new moon is its gate, and the moon itself is the bolt of the gate.
2. And when one lays down the two fires at new moon!,—even as one would enter a stronghold by the gate, when the gate is open, and would thence reach the world of heaven, so it is when one lays down the fires at new moon.
3. And if one lays down the fires under a (special) asterism?,—just as if one tried to enter a stronghold, when the gate is closed, in some other way than through the gate, and failed to get inside the stronghold, so it is when one lays down the fires under an asterism: let him therefore not lay down the fires under an asterism.
4. On the same day on which that one (the moon) should not be seen either in the east or in the west,
' For the performance of the Agny4dhana, or setting up the sacrificial fires, see part i, p. 274 seqq.
2 For the Nakshatras, or lunar mansions, under which the , Agnyfdhana may be performed, see II, 1, 2, 1 seqq., and especially II, 1, 2, 19, where the practice of regulating the time of the ceremony by the Nakshatras is discouraged.
(44) Bp. 2 let him fast, for it is then that he (the moon) comes to this world?, and on that (day) he abides here (on the sacrificial ground).
5. And all the gods abide (here), all the spirits, all the deities, all the seasons, all the Stomas (hymnforms), all the Pzzsh¢has*, and all the metres.
6. And, verily, it is for all the gods, for all spirits, for all deities, for all seasons, for all Stomas, for all Prvishzéhas, and for all metres that the fires of him are laid down who lays them down at new moon: he should therefore lay them down at new moon.
6. And, verily, it is for all the gods, for all spirits, for all deities, for all seasons, for all Stomas, for all Prvishzéhas, and for all metres that the fires of him are laid down who lays them down at new moon: he should therefore lay them down at new moon.
7. He may lay down the fires on the new moon which falls in the (month) Vaisdkha, for that coincides with the Rohiai (asterism); for the Rohi#t means the self, offspring and cattle*: he thus becomes established in a self, in offspring and cattle. But, indeed, the new moon is the form of the Agnyéadheya: let him therefore lay down the fires at new moon ;—let him perform the preliminary ceremony‘ at full moon, and the initiation ceremony at new moon.
Srconp BRAHMANA.
1. Now when they spread (and perform) the sacrifice, they kill it; and when they press out king Soma, they kill him; and when they ‘quiet’ and cut up the victim, they kill it,—it is by means of the mortar and pestle, and by the two mill-stones that they kill the Haviryagé#a (grain-offering).
* See I, 6, 4, 5-
* For the six Przsh¢ha-simans, see part iii, introd., p. xx seqq.
5 See II, 1, 2, 6. 7.
. * For the Anvarambhanfyé-ishA, lit. ‘taking-hold offering,’ see part ii, p. 40, note 1.
x1 KAwbDA, I ADHYAYA, 2 BRAHMANA, 6. 3
2. And having killed the sacrifice, he pours it, as seed, into the fire as its womb, for, indeed, the fire is the womb of the sacrifice, from out of it it is produced : let him therefore perform those ten oblations' for which the Vasha¢ is uttered.
3. And, indeed, this sacrifice is the blowing (wind): he blows here, as it were, as a single one, but when he has entered into man, he is divided into ten parts ;—with the vital airs thus distributed, it (the sacrifice) is born from out of its womb, the fire : this is that Virag of ten syllables, this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
4. There may, however, be nine (oblations)?;—he thus forms a defective (lesser, lower) Viraég with a view to production; for from the lesser’, indeed, creatures are produced here: this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
5. But there may be one additional (oblation)*,— that one remains over for Pragdpati: this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
6. And there may be two additional (oblations)',
1 These ten oblations of the New and Full-moon sacrifice (as the model for Haviryagfas generally), as enumerated by SAyaza, are (a) at full moon—five fore-offerings, two butter-portions, two cake-offerings to Agni, and Agni-Soma, and a low-voiced offering to Agni-Soma, (4) at new moon—five fore-offerings, two butterportions, a cake to Agni, a low-voiced offering to Vishzu, and an offering of (sweet and sour) milk, or Sénn4yya, to Indra.
* Viz. inasmuch as, according to Sayama, at the Full-moon sacrifice the offering to Agni-Soma only takes place in the’ case of one who is a Soma-offerer. I find, however, no authority for this.
3 Or, from the lower part (nyfina); cf. II, 1, 1, 133 5, 1, 20.
* Viz. inasmuch as, according to Sayama, at the Full-moon sacrifice the offering to Agni-Soma only takes place in the’ case of one who is a Soma-offerer. I find, however, no authority for this.
3 Or, from the lower part (nyfina); cf. II, 1, 1, 133 5, 1, 20.
* That is, if the oblation to Agni Svish/akrit (part i, p. 199 seqq.) is taken into account.
5 According to SAyana, the second additional offering is the oblation of clotted ghee to Vanaspati (the lord of the forest, or
B2
p. 4
—a productive pair consists of two : thus a productive pair is produced ; this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
7. And there may be three additional ones?,— a productive pair consists of two, and that which is produced is the third: this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
8. And there may be four additional ones?,—as the one so the four. There are these three worlds: these worlds he thus gains by three (oblations); and Pragapati, indeed, is the fourth beyond these worlds : by the fourth (oblation) he thus gains Pragdpati,— this is that perfection, the sacrifice.
9. That (sacrifice) which is defective in two (oblations)* is indeed defective, it is not a sacrifice; and that which is excessive in respect of five (oblations) is indeed excessive, it is not a sacrifice: this is that perfection as regards the ten, the twenty, thus up to a thousand‘.
10. Verily, they who perform the Full and Newmoon sacrifice, run a race’, One ought to perform it during fifteen years ;—in these fifteen years there are three hundred and sixty full moons and new the tree, i. e. the sacrificial stake, or Soma) at the animal sacrifice. Cf. part ii, p. 208.
1 These three oblations, according to Sdyaa, are the three after-offerings (to the Barhis, to N&rasamsa, and to Agni), see part i, p. 230 seqq.
* Viz. either the Svishfakrzt and the three after-offerings; or the four Patnisamyigas (to Soma, Tvashérz, the wives of the gods, and Agni Grshapati), cf. part i, p. 256 seqq.
* That is, if it includes only eight oblations, see paragraph 4.
* That is, counting every ten (oblations) one Virdg, or metrical pada of ten syllables.
* Viz. running along, as they do, with the revolutions of the moon and the sun.
x1 KANDA, I ADHYAYA, 3 BRAHMANA, T. 5 moons; and there are in a year three hundred and sixty nights: it is the nights he thus gains.
11. He should then offer for another fifteen years ; m these fifteen years there are three hundred and sixty full moons and new moons; and there are in a year three hundred and sixty days: it is the days he thus gains, and the year itself he thus gains.
12. Now, indeed, the gods were at first mortal ; and only when they had gained the year they were immortal; for the year is everything, and the imperishable means everything: thereby then accrues to him imperishable merit, the imperishable world.
12. Now, indeed, the gods were at first mortal ; and only when they had gained the year they were immortal; for the year is everything, and the imperishable means everything: thereby then accrues to him imperishable merit, the imperishable world.
13. He who, knowing this, offers (the Full and New-moon sacrifice) for thirty years, becomes one of the race-runners, whence one ought to offer sacrifice for not less than thirty years. But if he be a performer of the Daksh4yaza sacrifice’, he need only offer for fifteen years, for therein that perfection is brought about, since he performs (every month) two Full-moon and two New-moon offerings, and thus that perfection is indeed brought about therein.
TuirD BRAHMANA.
1, When he has performed the Full-moon sacrifice, he prepares an additional (cake) for Indra Vim~vidh (the repeller of scorners), and offers it in accordance with the procedure of an ish¢i?; and when he has performed the New-moon sacrifice, he prepares an additional rice-pap. for Aditi’, and offers it in accordance with the procedure of an ishéi.
1 For this modification of the New and Full-moon sacrifice, see part i, p. 374 seqq. ;
* That is to say, after the model of the Full-moon sacrifice.
* See part i, p. 375, where read ‘ Aditi’ for ‘ Aditye.’
p. 6
2. And as to why, after performing the Full-moon sacrifice, he prepares (a cake) for Indra Vimzzdh, it is because Indra is the deity of the sacrifice; but the chief oblation of the Full-moon sacrifice belongs to Agni and Soma, and nothing is offered there with the formula ‘To Indra (I offer) thee!’ Hereby then that oblation comes to be shared by Indra, and so does the sacrifice come to be shared by Indra. And as to why (he offers) with ‘To (Indra) Vimzzdh!’ it is that by the Full-moon sacrifice he slays all scorners (mvzdh), all evil spirits.
3. And as to why, after performing the New-moon sacrifice, he prepares a pap for Aditii—that moon doubtless is the same as King Soma, the food of the gods: when on that night he is not seen either in the east or in the west, the oblation becomes, as it were, uncertain and unfirmi. Now Aditi is this earth, and she, indeed, is certain and firmly established : thereby, then, that oblation of his becomes certain and firmly established. Such, then, is the reason why he prepares additional oblations; now as to why he should not prepare them.
4. When, after performing the Full-moon sacrifice, he prepares an additional (cake) for Indra Vimvidh, he does so in order that his sacrifice should become shared in by Indra, for every sacrifice belongs to Indra. But inasmuch as every sacrifice belongs to Indra, thereby that oblation of his, and that sacrifice, is already shared in by Indra.
5. And when, after performing the New-moon sacrifice, he prepares an additional pap for Aditi,— surely the New-moon sacrifice is itself an additional one; for by the Full-moon sacrifice Indra slew Vritra, and for him who had slain Vvstra, the gods