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1xxvi SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA. as being led round thrice in accordance with the sacred ordinance. Now, this ceremony is quite foreign to the later practice in animal sacrifices. SAyava accordingly takes it to refer to the rite of ‘ paryagnikarava,’ or carrying fire round the victims!; but the text of the passage evidently does not admit of such an interpretation ; and, besides, in Rig-v. X, 155, 5, the sacrificial cow is apparently referred to as first being led round, and then fire being carried round it. It is therefore more probable that the victims were in the first place made to circumambulate the fire, or the fire and stake combined. Further, the allusion to the pasu-purodasas, or cakes offered in connection with the victims, as well as to the two cloths and the piece of gold placed on the ground, as they are in the later practice, for the dead horse to lie upon, might seem to suggest that even then this sacrifice was not performed in quite so simple a manner, but somewhat more in accordance with the later ceremonial than the scanty allusions in the hymns might lead one to suppose. At all events, however, we shall probably not be far wrong in assuming that, from the very beginning, the performance of the horse-sacrifice must have had connected with it a certain amount of ceremonial of a purely secular and popular character. Even at the time of the fully developed ritual this was almost certainly the case to a larger extent than would appear from the exposition of it given in the Brahmazas and Sdtras which, indeed, are mainly concerned with the religious side of the ceremonial. For this reason considerable interest attaches to the description of the horse-sacrifice given in the Asvamedhika-parvan of the Mahabhérata in which much greater stress is laid on the popular and chivalrous aspect of this religious observance. Though this epic account manifestly emanates from a much later period’, it seems, upon the whole, to present the 1 See p. 307, note 5. 3 It has even been supposed to be merely a condensed version of a comparatively modern work ascribed to Gaimini, the (Asvamedha-parvan of the) Gaimini-Bhfrata. INTRODUCTION. XXVIlI traditional features of this royal ceremony, embellished no doubt by all the exercise of that poetic fancy to which the occasion so readily lends itself.
2INTRODUCTION. XXVIlI traditional features of this royal ceremony, embellished no doubt by all the exercise of that poetic fancy to which the occasion so readily lends itself. On the completion of the great war between the Pazdava and Kaurava princes, Yudhish¢fira, having reascended the throne of his fathers, resolves on _performing the horse-sacrifice, as calculated to cleanse him of all guilt! incurred by the slaughter of his Kaurava kinsmen. Having been initiated on the day of the Kaitra full-moon (beginning of spring), ‘the king, clad in a linen (? silk) garment and the skin of a black antelope, bearing a staff in his hand, and wearing a gold wreath, and a round gold plate? round his neck, shone like a second Pragdpati at the holy cult.’ The chosen steed 8, of black and white colour like the black buck, is then led up, and is set free by the sage Vy4sa himself; and that model of knightly perfection, Arguna, the king’s second brother, is appointed to guard the priceless victim during its year’s roaming. He accordingly starts after it on his chariot yoked with white steeds, attended by a picked body-guard ¢, amidst the rejoicings and fervent blessings of all Hastinapura—men, women, and children. Thus followed by its martial escort, the noble steed roams at will over the lands * ‘Vyasa remarks to Yudhish¢Aira (XIV, 2071), ‘ For the Asvamedha, O king of kings, cleanses away all ill-deeds: by performing it thou wilt without doubt become free from sin.’ Cf. Sat. Br. XIII, 3, 1, 1, ‘Thereby the gods redeem all sin, yea, even the slaying of a Brahman they thereby redeem; and he who performs the Asvamedha redeems all sin, he redeems even the slaying of a Brahman.’ As a rule, however, greater stress is laid in the Brahmana on the efficacy of the ceremonial in ensuring supreme sway to the king, and security of life and Property to his subjects. ® The ‘rukma’ is borne by the Agniéit, or builder of a fire-altar, which is required for the Asvamedha ; cf. VI, 7, 1, 1. > It is carefully selected by charioteers and priests, Mahabh. XIV, 2087, * Whilst, aecording to the Brahmana (XIII, 4, 2, 5), the body of ‘ keepers’ is to consist of 100 royal princes clad in armour, 100 noblemen armed with swords, 100 sons of heralds and headmen bearing quivers and arrows, and 100 sons of attendants and charioteers bearing staves; the epic gives no details, except that it states that ‘a disciple of YaeAavalkya, skilled in sacrificial rites, and well-versed in the Veda, went along with the son of Pritha to perform the propitiatory rites,’ and that ‘many Brahmamas conversant with the Veda, and many Kshatriyas followed him at the king’s behest.’ XXVIli SATAPATHA-BKAHMANA.
3over which sovereign sway is claimed by the P4zdava king—to wit, the whole of India from sea to sea—first pressing eastwards towards the sea, then turning southwards along the eastern shore as far as the extreme point of the peninsula, and finally northwards again, on its homeward way, along the western coast. Time after time the determined attempts to impede its progress, or even to capture and retain it as a precious trophy and token of national independence, are successfully repelled by the dauntless son of Pritha; but, mindful of his brother's injunctions, he spares the lives of the kings and princes who oppose him, and, having obtained their submission, he invites them to attend the sacrifice of the horse at Hastinapura. On the other hand, not to take up the challenge implied in the progress of the horse was considered a sign of weakness or cowardice. Thus the king of Mawzipura is censured severely by Arguna for receiving him meekly, accompanied only by Brahmans and with presents to offer to the intruder, being told that he had lamentably fallen away from the status of a Kshatriya, and acted the part of awoman. At length tidings of the approach of the horse reach the king, and forthwith preparations are made for getting ready the sacrificial ground, and to provide accommodation, on a right royal scale, for the numerous guests expected to witness the ceremonial. Specimens of all available species of animals are brought together to serve as victims! along with the sacred horse; and dialecticians, 1 That is, real or symbolic, only the domesticated animals being offered, whilst the wild ones are set free after the ceremony of ‘ paryagnikaraza.’ Amongst these animals the poet curiously enough also mentions (XIV, 2542) ‘ vr¢ddhastriyak,’ which Pratépa Chandra Riy translates by ‘old women.’ This is of course impossible ; if it is not a wrong reading, it has doubtless to be taken in the sense of ‘old female (kine),’ probably the (21) barren cows offered at the end of the Asvamedha to Mitra-Varuza, the Visve Devs, and Brthaspati (XIII, 5, 4, 25) being intended. In its enumeration of the victims, the Taitt. Samhita (V, 6, 21) indeed mentions ‘ vairdg? purushf,’ taken by the commentator to mean ‘two human females consecrated to Virfg.’ If it be for this or a similar purpose that the ‘ vr¢ddha-strsyak’ were intended, we may refer to Taitt. Br. 1II, 9, 8, where it is distinctly stated that ‘the man’ and the wild animals are to be released as soon as the ‘paryagnikarazam’ has been performed on them. But no ‘man’ being mentioned amongst the victims, Sdyana INTRODUCTION. XXix
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1xxvi SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA. as being led round thrice in accordance with the sacred ordinance. Now, this ceremony is quite foreign to the later practice in animal sacrifices. SAyava accordingly takes it to refer to the rite of ‘ paryagnikarava,’ or carrying fire round the victims!; but the text of the passage evidently does not admit of such an interpretation ; and, besides, in Rig-v. X, 155, 5, the sacrificial cow is apparently referred to as first being led round, and then fire being carried round it. It is therefore more probable that the victims were in the first place made to circumambulate the fire, or the fire and stake combined. Further, the allusion to the pasu-purodasas, or cakes offered in connection with the victims, as well as to the two cloths and the piece of gold placed on the ground, as they are in the later practice, for the dead horse to lie upon, might seem to suggest that even then this sacrifice was not performed in quite so simple a manner, but somewhat more in accordance with the later ceremonial than the scanty allusions in the hymns might lead one to suppose. At all events, however, we shall probably not be far wrong in assuming that, from the very beginning, the performance of the horse-sacrifice must have had connected with it a certain amount of ceremonial of a purely secular and popular character. Even at the time of the fully developed ritual this was almost certainly the case to a larger extent than would appear from the exposition of it given in the Brahmazas and Sdtras which, indeed, are mainly concerned with the religious side of the ceremonial. For this reason considerable interest attaches to the description of the horse-sacrifice given in the Asvamedhika-parvan of the Mahabhérata in which much greater stress is laid on the popular and chivalrous aspect of this religious observance. Though this epic account manifestly emanates from a much later period’, it seems, upon the whole, to present the 1 See p. 307, note 5. 3 It has even been supposed to be merely a condensed version of a comparatively modern work ascribed to Gaimini, the (Asvamedha-parvan of the) Gaimini-Bhfrata. INTRODUCTION. XXVIlI traditional features of this royal ceremony, embellished no doubt by all the exercise of that poetic fancy to which the occasion so readily lends itself.
2INTRODUCTION. XXVIlI traditional features of this royal ceremony, embellished no doubt by all the exercise of that poetic fancy to which the occasion so readily lends itself. On the completion of the great war between the Pazdava and Kaurava princes, Yudhish¢fira, having reascended the throne of his fathers, resolves on _performing the horse-sacrifice, as calculated to cleanse him of all guilt! incurred by the slaughter of his Kaurava kinsmen. Having been initiated on the day of the Kaitra full-moon (beginning of spring), ‘the king, clad in a linen (? silk) garment and the skin of a black antelope, bearing a staff in his hand, and wearing a gold wreath, and a round gold plate? round his neck, shone like a second Pragdpati at the holy cult.’ The chosen steed 8, of black and white colour like the black buck, is then led up, and is set free by the sage Vy4sa himself; and that model of knightly perfection, Arguna, the king’s second brother, is appointed to guard the priceless victim during its year’s roaming. He accordingly starts after it on his chariot yoked with white steeds, attended by a picked body-guard ¢, amidst the rejoicings and fervent blessings of all Hastinapura—men, women, and children. Thus followed by its martial escort, the noble steed roams at will over the lands * ‘Vyasa remarks to Yudhish¢Aira (XIV, 2071), ‘ For the Asvamedha, O king of kings, cleanses away all ill-deeds: by performing it thou wilt without doubt become free from sin.’ Cf. Sat. Br. XIII, 3, 1, 1, ‘Thereby the gods redeem all sin, yea, even the slaying of a Brahman they thereby redeem; and he who performs the Asvamedha redeems all sin, he redeems even the slaying of a Brahman.’ As a rule, however, greater stress is laid in the Brahmana on the efficacy of the ceremonial in ensuring supreme sway to the king, and security of life and Property to his subjects. ® The ‘rukma’ is borne by the Agniéit, or builder of a fire-altar, which is required for the Asvamedha ; cf. VI, 7, 1, 1. > It is carefully selected by charioteers and priests, Mahabh. XIV, 2087, * Whilst, aecording to the Brahmana (XIII, 4, 2, 5), the body of ‘ keepers’ is to consist of 100 royal princes clad in armour, 100 noblemen armed with swords, 100 sons of heralds and headmen bearing quivers and arrows, and 100 sons of attendants and charioteers bearing staves; the epic gives no details, except that it states that ‘a disciple of YaeAavalkya, skilled in sacrificial rites, and well-versed in the Veda, went along with the son of Pritha to perform the propitiatory rites,’ and that ‘many Brahmamas conversant with the Veda, and many Kshatriyas followed him at the king’s behest.’ XXVIli SATAPATHA-BKAHMANA.
3over which sovereign sway is claimed by the P4zdava king—to wit, the whole of India from sea to sea—first pressing eastwards towards the sea, then turning southwards along the eastern shore as far as the extreme point of the peninsula, and finally northwards again, on its homeward way, along the western coast. Time after time the determined attempts to impede its progress, or even to capture and retain it as a precious trophy and token of national independence, are successfully repelled by the dauntless son of Pritha; but, mindful of his brother's injunctions, he spares the lives of the kings and princes who oppose him, and, having obtained their submission, he invites them to attend the sacrifice of the horse at Hastinapura. On the other hand, not to take up the challenge implied in the progress of the horse was considered a sign of weakness or cowardice. Thus the king of Mawzipura is censured severely by Arguna for receiving him meekly, accompanied only by Brahmans and with presents to offer to the intruder, being told that he had lamentably fallen away from the status of a Kshatriya, and acted the part of awoman. At length tidings of the approach of the horse reach the king, and forthwith preparations are made for getting ready the sacrificial ground, and to provide accommodation, on a right royal scale, for the numerous guests expected to witness the ceremonial. Specimens of all available species of animals are brought together to serve as victims! along with the sacred horse; and dialecticians, 1 That is, real or symbolic, only the domesticated animals being offered, whilst the wild ones are set free after the ceremony of ‘ paryagnikaraza.’ Amongst these animals the poet curiously enough also mentions (XIV, 2542) ‘ vr¢ddhastriyak,’ which Pratépa Chandra Riy translates by ‘old women.’ This is of course impossible ; if it is not a wrong reading, it has doubtless to be taken in the sense of ‘old female (kine),’ probably the (21) barren cows offered at the end of the Asvamedha to Mitra-Varuza, the Visve Devs, and Brthaspati (XIII, 5, 4, 25) being intended. In its enumeration of the victims, the Taitt. Samhita (V, 6, 21) indeed mentions ‘ vairdg? purushf,’ taken by the commentator to mean ‘two human females consecrated to Virfg.’ If it be for this or a similar purpose that the ‘ vr¢ddha-strsyak’ were intended, we may refer to Taitt. Br. 1II, 9, 8, where it is distinctly stated that ‘the man’ and the wild animals are to be released as soon as the ‘paryagnikarazam’ has been performed on them. But no ‘man’ being mentioned amongst the victims, Sdyana INTRODUCTION. XXix
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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