Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1Br. 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
23 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.
32 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
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.
1Br. 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
23 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.
32 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
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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