PRINCETON, N. J.
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BL 1010 .S3 V.26
Satapathabr ahma na.
The satapatha~br ahmana
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Sacred Books of the East
fonbon HENRY FROWDE
Oxford University Press Warehouse Amen Corner, E.G.
Sacred Books of the East
Translated
By Various Oriental Scholars
And Edited by
F. Max Muller
Vol. Xxvi
At the Clarendon Press
[All rights reserved^
^Atapatha-Brahmana
According -to the Text of the
mAdhyandina school
Translated by
Julius Eggeling
Part Ii
Books Iii and Iv
At the Clarendon Press
\^ All rights reserved ]
Introduction .... . . • • • xi
THIRD KAiVZ^A.
A. Day (or Days) of Preparation.
Diksha, or Consecration
Praya«iyesh/i, or Opening Sacrifice .
Hirawyavati-ahuti, or Offering with Gold ; and Homage
to Soma-cow ....•••
Purchase of Soma-plants .....
Procession and Entrance of King Soma Subrahmawya-litany . .....
Atithya, or Guest-meal to King Soma . Tanunaptra, or Covenant of Tanunapat Avantara-diksha, or Intermediary Consecration . Upasada/^, or Homages (sieges) ....
Preparation of Soma-altar with High-altar .
Agni-pra7?ayana, or Leading Forward of the Fire to the
High-altar .....••
Construction of Sheds, and Preparation of Pressing place and Dhishwya-hearths ....
Havirdhana, or Cart-shed . . . • Uparava, or Sound-holes ....
Sadas, or Tent .....
Dhishwya-hearths . . . . •
Vaisar^ina-offerings, and Leading Forward of Agni and
Soma (to Agnidhra)
Animal Sacrifice ....-•
Setting up of Sacrificial Stake .
Slaying of Victim .....
Oblations : —
Fore-offerings with Apri-verses . Offering of Omentum (vapa) Pai'u-puro^/aja, or Cake-offering . Cutting and oflfering of Flesh-portions .
Viu
Offering of gravy (vasa)
Offering to Vanaspati .
After-offerings ....
Purificatory Bath, &c. .
Ekadajint, or Set of Eleven Victims
Vasativari-water . . . . ' .
B. Day of Soma-feast.
Pratar-anuvaka, or Morning-prayer; and Preparatory Ceremonies ........
Prata^-savana, or Morning-pressing : —
Preliminary Pressing ......
Nigrabhya-water ......
Nigrabha-formula . . , . .
FOURTH KAiVZ^A.
IJpamsu-gvaha. . . . . . .248
Great Pressing : —
Antarydma-graha 257
Aindravayava-graha 265
Maitravaruwa-graha 265
Ai'vma-graha . . . . . .272
5'ukra- and Manthi-grahas . . . ,278
Agraya«a-grana . . . . . .288
Ukthya-graha . . . . . .292
Vaij-vanara- and Dhruva-grahas . . .298
Vipru<f-homa, or Oblation of Drops . . . 305
Bahishpavamana-stotra 307
Ajvina-graha . . . . . -312
Offering of SavanTya-puro^a ja/^ . . . .314
i?/tu-grahas, or Libations to the Seasons . 318
Aindragna-graha . . . . . -322
Vaij-vadeva-graha . . . . . -323
A^a-i'astra ....... 325
Madhyandina-savana, or Midday-pressing . . -331 6'ukra and Manthin; Agrayawa and Ukthya-
grahas 332
Marutvatiya-grahas ..... 334
Mahendra-graha ...... 338
Dakshiwa-homas ...... 340
Tn'tiya-savana, or Evening-pressing .... 350 Ajvina-graha . . . . . • 35i
Agrayawa-graha . . ... . -BBS
Savitra-graha . . . . . -357
Vaijvadeva-graha . . . . . 359
Offering of /'aru (rice-pap) to Soma . . . 363 Patnivata-graha ...... 365
Agnimaruta-j'astra ...... 369
Hariyo_§-ana-graha . . . . • 37°
Concluding Ceremonies ...... 374
Samish'/aya^us . . . . . -374
Avabhr/tha, or Purificatory Bath . . • 37^
Udayaniya-ish/i ....... 386
Udavasaniya-ish/i, or Completing Oblation . . 389 Offering of Barren Cow . . . . '391
C. Additional Forms of Soma-sacrifice.
Sho^/ajin ......... 397
Dvadaraha ........ 402
Atigrahyas . . . . . . .402
Avakaj'as . . . ... . . . 409
Triratra sahasradakshiwa . . . . . .414
Dvadajaha vyufl72a-y^^andas . . . . . .418
A;;;ju-graha . . . . . . -423
Gavam ayanam ........ 426
Mahavratiya-graha ...... 429
Brahma-saman ....... 434
Diksha, or Consecration, for Sacrificial Sessions . 440
Sattrotthana, or Rising from a Session . . 447
-S'aturhotn- formulas . . . . -452
Brahmodya 452
Index to Parts I and II (Vols. XII and XXVI) . . 457
Additions and Corrections ....... 474
Plan of Sacrificial Ground ....... 475
Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for the
Translations of the Sacred Books of the East . -477
INTRODUCTION.
The contents of the third and fourth books of the 5ata- patha-brahmawa form an important chapter of its dogmatic explanation of the sacrificial ceremonial. This portion of the work treats of the ordinary forms of the most sacred of Vedic sacrificial rites, the Soma-sacrifice. The exposition of the Soma-ritual also includes an account of the animal offering which, though it may be performed as an inde- pendent sacrifice, more usually constitutes an integral part of the Saumya-adhvara.
Since F.Windischmann, in his treatise ' Ueber den Soma- cultus der Arier' (1846), pointed out the remarkable simi- larity of conceptions prevalent among the ancient Indians and Iranians in regard to the Soma, both from a sacrificial and a mythological point of view, this subject has re- peatedly engaged the attention of scholars. In A. Kuhn's masterly essay, ' Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Got- tertranks' (1859), the Soma-myth was thoroughly investi- gated, and its roots were traced far back into the Indo- European antiquity. Within the last few years the entire Rig-vedic conceptions regarding Soma have, for the first time, been subjected to a searching examination in M. A. Bergaigne's ' La Religion Vedique.' This book forms an important contribution to the interpretation of the Vedic hymns ; and though the combinations and theories put forth by the author may not always commend themselves to scholars generally, there can be no doubt that his en- quiries exhibit a rare analytic faculty, and have yielded a mass of new and valuable suggestions.
Among the numerous features which the Vedic Aryans
had in common with their Iranian kinsmen, and from which
it is supposed that an intimate connection must have sub-
Xll 6'ATAPATHA-BRAHMAiVA.
sisted between these two easternmost branches of the Indo- European stock for some time after they had become separated from their western brethren, the Soma cult and myth are not the least striking. Both the Vedic soma and the Zend haoma — derived from the root su (Zend hu), ' to press, produce ' — denote in the first place a spirituous liquor extracted from a certain plant, described as growing on the mountains ; the words being then naturally applied to the plant itself. But the Rig-veda, not less than the Avesta, distinguishes between an earthly and a celestial Soma ; and it is precisely the relation between these two, or the descent of the heavenly Soma to the world of men, which forms the central element of the Soma-myth. To the childlike intellect of the primitive Aryan which knew not how to account for the manifold strange and awe-in- spiring phenomena of nature otherwise than by peopling the universe with a thousand divine agents, the potent juice of the Soma-plant which endow^ed the feeble mortal with godlike powers, and for a time freed him from earthly cares and troubles, seemed a veritable god, not less worthy of adoration than the wielder of the thunderbolt, the roaring wind, or the vivifying orb of day. The same magic powers are, upon the whole, ascribed to Soma by the Indian and Persian bards : to both of them he is the wise friend and mighty protector of his votary, the inspirer of heroic deeds of arms as well as of the flights of fancy and song, the bestower of health, long life, and even immortality. The divine personality of Soma, it is true, is, even for Vedic imagery, of an extremely vague and shadowy character ; but it is difficult to see what plastic conception there could be of a deity whose chief activity apparently consists in mingling his fiery male nature with the teeming waters of the sky, and the swelling sap of plants. The principal cause, however, of the vagueness of Soma's personality, and the source of considerable difficulties in explaining many of the Vedic conceptions of this deity, is his twofold nature as a fiery liquor, or liquid fire, — that is to say, his fluid and his fiery or luminous nature.
INTRODUCTION. XUl
The Soma, with whom the worshipper is chiefly concerned, is the Soma-plant, and the juice extracted from it for the holy service. This is the earthly Soma, or, so to speak, the Avatar of the divine Soma. The latter, on the other hand, is a luminous deity, a source of light and life. In the Brahmawas, Soma, in this respect, has become completely identified with the Moon, whose varying phases, and tem- porary obscuration at the time of new-moon, favoured the mystic notions of his serving as food ^ to the Gods and Fathers (Manes) ; and of his periodical descents to the earth, with the view of sexual union with the waters and plants, and his own regeneration ^. Though this identifi- cation appears already clearly in several passages of the Rik, Vedic scholars seem mostly inclined to refer this con- ception to a secondary stage of development^. According to Professor Roth, indeed, this identification would have no other mythological foundation than the coincidence of notions which finds its expression in the term indu^ (com- monly used for Soma, and in the later language for the moon), viz. as ' a drop ' and ' a spark (drop of light).' This is not unlikely, but it does not of course help us to settle the point as to how that term came ultimately to be applied exclusively to the moon among heavenly luminaries. To the Vedic poet it is rather the sun that appears, if not iden- tical, at any rate closely connected, with the divine Soma. The fact was first pointed out by Grassmann ^, who pro- posed to identify Pavamana, the ' pure-streamed, sparkling ' Soma, with the, apparently solar, deity Puemuno of the
^ Or, as the vessel containing the divine Soma, the drink conferring immortality.
" See, for instance, Sut. Br. I, 6, 4, 5 seq. Possibly also the shape of the 'homed moon ' may have facilitated the attribution to that luminary of a bull- like nature such as is ascribed to Soma ; though a similar attribution, it is true, is made in the case of other heavenly objects whose outward aj^pearance offers no such points of comparison.
^ M. A. Earth, The Vedic Religions, p. 27, on the other hand, is of opinion that this identification goes back to Indo-European times.
* St. Petersburg Diet. s. v. According to A. Kuhn, the two myths of the descent of Fire and of the divine Liquor spring from one and the same con- ception, whence the spark of fire is conceived as a drop. ' Herabkunft,' p. 161.
5 Kuhn's Zeitsch. f. Vergl. Spr. XVI, p. 183 seq.
XIV 5'ATAPATHA-BRAHMAA^A.
Iguvian tablets. M. Bergaigne has also carefully collected the passages of the Rik in which Soma appears either com- pared or identified with the sun. Although a mere com- parison of Indu-Soma with the sun can scarcely be considered sufficient evidence on this point, since such a comparison might naturally enough suggest itself even to one who had the identity of Soma and the moon in his mind, there still remain not a few passages where no such ambiguity seems possible. Somewhat peculiar are the re- lations between Soma and Surya's daughter (probably the Dawn), alluded to several times ^ in the Rtk. In one passage (IX, I, 6) she is said to pass Surya through the perpetual filter (j-aj-vat vara); whilst in another (IX, 113, 8) 'Surya's daughter brought the bull (Soma?), reared by Par^anya (the cloud) ; the Gandharvas seized him and put him, as sap, into the Soma (plant?).' A combination of this female bearer of Soma with the eagle (or falcon) who carried off Soma (IV, 27, &c.) seems to have supplied the form of the myth, current in the Brahmawas, according to which Gayatri fetched Soma from heaven. The hymn X, 85 2, on the other hand, celebrates the marriage ceremony of Soma and Surya, at which the two Ai-vins act as bride'smen, and Agni as the leader of the bridal procession to the bridegroom's home.
There are, however, other passages in the Rig-veda, in which Soma, so far from being identified with the sun, seems to be regarded as some sovereign power which originates or controls that luminary, as well as the other lights of heaven. Thus in Rig-veda IX, 61, 16 Soma is represented as producing (^anayan) the bright light belonging to all men ; in IX, 97, 41 as producing the light in the sun (a^anayat surye ^yotir indu//) ; in IX, 28, 5 ; 37, 4 as causing the sun to shine (roZ'ayan) ; in IX, 86, 22; 107, 7 as making him rise (a-rohayan) in the sky ; in IX, 6-^, 6
^ M. Bergaigne, II, p. 249, identifies with Surya's daughter the girl (? Apala) who, going to the water, found Soma, and took him home, saying, ' I'll press thee for Indra !' On this hymn see Prof. Aufrecht, Ind. Stud. IV, i seq.
